[الدكتور أحمد باذيب]

[In addition to the tower houses and mosques, the old city has within it two palaces, one believed to be very old and to date in its present form back to its original construction in the thirteenth (seventh) century. The other is of more recent date, constructed around 1920 (1339). The city also has a school, a hospital, a traditional market and a modern market. The traditional market has been dismantled to some extent; it is hoped to reconstruct it in its original form, so that the modern market near the single gate of the city may no longer be necessary.

The traditional houses of Shibam are built of mud-brick,
Shibam. Roof terraces of the house illustrated in Plates 32-4, and its neighbours. Showing the manner in which the floors set back in the top two or three floors to create terraces on each level, screened by high walls.
on stone foundations and with walls which taper on the outside from slightly less than I m thick at the bottom to less than 30 cm at the top. They are plastered externally with mud-plaster mixed with chopped straw, which shines when the sunlight strikes it. The top one or two levels of all the buildings are protected from rain by white lime plaster, which forms a continuous surface over all the roofs, parapets and outer walls, extending downwards in some cases about 5 m from the top. Hence the Arabs say that in the distance Shibam looks as though it is covered with snow.