| The Great Mosque of Shibam in Yemen. Located
at the heart of the old city and surrounded by towering mud brick
houses, the Great Mosque of Shibam was originally built in 753
AD. Much of the mosque as it is today is thought to have been
built in the fourteenth century. The presence of red baked bricks,
typical of ninth century Abbasid construction, point to reconstruction
efforts during the reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid; this is the
only site in Shibam where baked bricks are found. Little remains
of the original structure and so it is useless to our study other
than to note that it was built during the time of confusion. |
