[الدكتور أحمد باذيب]

	The visual effect of the city has to some extent been marred within the last few years by the erection of a number of fairly high houses outside the walls on the wadi bed. One of the proposals contained in the plan of action of the international campaign for the safeguarding of Wadi Hadramawt is that the most recent of these buildings should be demolished, or at least reduced in height, to single-storeyed or at most double-storeyed buildings, so that they will set off, rather than mar, the extreme height of the buildings within the town. Across the wadi lies the suburb city of Sihail, which was earlier a garden suburb, but has become concentrated into an urban area in the last twenty years. It is not intended that this garden suburb should be included in the conservation area. The walled city has slightly over 500 houses, and a population estimated today at more than 7,000. It is believed that this population is higher than that of a century ago, due to the subdivision of some of the houses into multi-family dwellings. There are at present five functioning mosques within the city walls, and one in ruins (which it is intended to restore). A further historic mosque, that of Sheikh Ma'ruf, situated in the date groves west of the city, will be included in the conservation zone. Shibam. The staircase court of the house.