Wadi Dhar

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Wadi Dhar, just outside the capital Sana'a, is top of the tourist list, mainly because it is just outside the capital and, unlike much of the country, relatively easy to visit (with only a small travel permit). It is also one of those idiosyncratic places which makes Yemen so appealing, a weirdly constructed palace on top of a large rock outcrop, precarious, surreal...yet in Yemen, one of many similar bizarre buildings. Like many top tourist destinations it is clouded in confused and maybe deliberately misleading history. Although it does have some Neolithic traces, they are primarily the chisel marks in a cave in the foundations; the palace is relatively recent, actually a 1930's fantasy for a sheikh, but like most of Yemen, so different, so culturally distinct that it becomes apparently timeless. Here seen on an overcast day, it is probably very much more photogenic when the sun shines...but that is my fate to travel to a desert and bring rain!