Protecting and conserving the cultural heritage of the

Dangers threatening the sites and buildings

Most of the pre-Islamic town sites are badly eroded from the action of flash floods because of their location on the wadi bed, or alongside it. One of the first steps that has to be taken is to construct diversion dams.

Some of these sites are also exposed to the ravages of man for example, farming after the floods is being carried on in the fresh silts of the gullies eroded through the sites, debris soil is being removed by farmers for use in their fields, ancient dressed stone blocks are being removed by builders for use in modern constructions and, in some instances, the sites are being leveled, ploughed and put under agriculture. It is essential that these sites should immediately be fenced and provided with police guards.

The hillside temple sites are suffering the same kinds of problem, as are the ongoing excavations in the wadi. Not only are ancient finishing blocks of fine ashlar being stolen, but recently excavated material is disintegrating from exposure to the diurnal extremes of temperature and from radiation by the sun. Conservation of all these sites is urgently needed, as well as fencing and police protection, if the heritage of the ancient past is to be protected for future generations to enjoy.

Islamic monuments, many of them very old, are not always receiving the care and maintenance that their antiquity demands. In many examples, such as the mosque at Bor and the city wall of Shibam, repairing the ensuing damage is a relatively expensive undertaking.

In other cases, however, the threat to the monuments is caused by new factors in the environment, the most severe of which is water in the ground: piped water has been brought into the towns and cities without adequate means being provided to take it away-there are usually either no sewers or they are undersized, cracked and leaking. The resulting effects on the clay buildings which stand on soluble clay subsoils have been continuous settlement, cracking and collapse. A second serious problem has developed from the easy availability of water, which has encouraged house owners to install equipment using ever larger quantities of it showers, water-closets and washing machines. Any leak in the equipment, the water pipes or the drains out of the houses has immediate and disastrous consequences for the soluble wall and floor materials of the clay-brick tower houses. Finally, the open drains which lead the waste waters away from the traditional houses have, in many cases, not been properly repaired with materials which matched the original. Instead, their repair has either been neglected or the work has been done using cement; the latter has simply cracked away within a few months, leaving the leaks as bad as they were before. (The same kinds of problem from the inadequate or technically careless repair of the old buildings has also produced serious consequences for the roofs, allowing them to leak badly during rains.)

Measures that must urgently be taken include the provision of adequate drains and sewerage, both within the buildings and in the streets; the safeguarding of the water-pipes and equipment against leaks; studies of methods of improving the amenities of the buildings without introducing such large volumes of water; technical improvement of the materials and methods used to repair buildings; and action to conserve neglected buildings before it is too late, encouraging private owners to act on their own behalf wherever possible.

The visual character of the buildings and towns is also under threat; the ready supply of electricity has meant the introduction of unsightly electric wires draped across the buildings in all directions, and the same has happened with telephone wires.

Television aerials are beginning to disfigure the roofs. Car access is making pedestrian circulation difficult and unpleasant in some areas, and there is an increasing threat that tourist and visitor parking will clutter up and interfere with the traditional life of the people. Acculturation is a steady process, too, which can only be halted by carefully planned action now.

Worse still, there have been a number of ill-advised alterations to Islamic monuments which have seriously damaged them, perhaps irremediably. Expert guidance is needed here as to how such buildings should best be protected and conserved. In the case of an entire urban environment being judged worthy of protection, such as the old city of Shibam, careful strategies have to be developed which will permit conservation without stultifying the existence of the inhabitants. If such a programme of conservation is to succeed, it must encourage rehabilitation and revitalization not only of the buildings but of the economic, cultural, social and private lives of the people.

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