Ali Mahmood (South24) 

The protracted war in Yemen has caused a huge destruction in the poor country's infrastructure and posed big threats to the country's ancient cultural heritage which has been already damaged during the military confrontations and due to the lack of maintenance.

Recently, the UNESCO in partnership with the Yemen Social Fund for Development started an emergency rehabilitation project for many historical sites in Yemeni areas including Aden, Shibam in Hadramout governorate, Zabid in Hodeidah and Sanaa within an EU-funded project (Cash for Work).

UNESCO rehabilitation project in Aden (South24)

Since September 2020 the UNESCO and its local partners (the Yemen Social Fund for Development and the Public Works Project) surveyed over 8,000 of historical ancient buildings in Yemen including residences, museums and other historical public spaces, and rehabilitated 78 historical sites" the organization stated on its official website.

In Aden, the UNESCO with its local partners have rehabilitated a dozen of ancient houses and embarked on rehabilitating public historical spaces in the ancient city of Crater.

UNESCO rehabilitation project in Aden (South24)

"The rehabilitation project is funded by the European Union through the UNESCO and carried out by the Yemen Social Fund for Development in partnership with the Public Works Project and the Yemeni Organization for the Preservation of the Historic cities and the Yemeni General Authority for Antiquities" Eng. Nasser Abdulrazak the director of the Yemeni Organization for the Preservation of the Historic cities in Aden told "South24".

"At the beginning, the Yemen Social Fund for Development selected 20 historical houses to be rehabilitated in Crater city in Aden but when they started the rehabilitation process, they found that repairing the exterior faces of the ancient buildings costs much higher than allocated within the budget of the project, so they resorted to cut the number of the historic houses in the rehabilitation list" Eng. Nasser said.

"This project is indeed important for us because Aden embraces many ancient historical houses and historical public sites as well, some of the houses which were rehabilitated date back to the 18th century " Eng. Nasser added.

Eng. Nasser said that the cultural heritage in Aden was damaged in the Houthi war, many historical sites were bombed and looted.

"Many historical sites in Aden were destroyed and looted by the Houthis when they invaded the city back in 2015, the Military Museum and the National Museum come at the forefront of the historical sites which were bombarded and looted by the Houthis" he said.

"Sadly, I can say that 50% of the cultural heritage in Aden was damaged in the war. In 2018, we carried out a 40-days survey for the historical sites which were affected by the clashes in Aden. 48 damaged sites were documented and sent to the UNESCO which committed to launch projects to rehabilitate them within five years" Eng. Nasser explained   

In addition to rehabilitating the historical sites which were damaged by the war, the project selected some ancient houses and embarked maintaining them to preserve them as a historical heritage.

"We selected more than 20 ancient houses according to their age and condition, some houses were selected date back to the 18th century, they were built by Jewish people" Eng. Hoyam Hairda one of the local engineers leading the project told "South24".

"The rehabilitation process for the ancient private houses focuses on their exteriors, including mashrabiyas (type of oriel window), balconies, stone cleaning, woodworks for doors and windows " Eng. Hoyam said.

"We attempted to preserve the old design and the old facades of the ancient houses without any new additions despite the many hurdles we faced while carrying out the rehabilitation process including the dire condition of the rooves" she said.

Glimpse of hope

Residents of the ancient city of Crater in Aden were happy seeing some ancient houses shining back after centuries. The rehabilitation process gave the residents of the city a glimpse of hope in war time.

UNESCO rehabilitation project in Aden (South24) 

 "It gives us a glimpse of hope in such difficult time" Abdulaziz Anis, an owner of an ancient house with the UNESCO rehabilitation project told "South24".

"My house is too old, it has been the same since my father bought it a hundred years ago, we couldn't maintain it because we don't have a budget for it" Mr. Abdulaziz said.

Ali Mahmood

South24 Center for News and Studies 

Photo: UNESCO rehabilitation project in Aden (South24)