Bab al-Yemen: Where ‘Tradition and Modern Life Merge’
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 06.19.07 | 1:11 PM ET
Photo of Bab al-Yemen is the entrance to Sanaa, Yemen’s old city—and the spot where, in the afternoon, when the city “shakes off its lunchtime doldrums,” a market springs to life. The Washington Post’s Anthony Shadid writes about it today, yet another great story—earlier, we posted about this one—in the paper’s Time Zones series. “Less than 50 years ago, the walls that meet at Bab al-Yemen encompassed all of Sanaa, then a city of just tens of thousands and more medieval than modern,” Shadid writes. “Today, its residents number nearly 2 million, and the sprawling capital stretches beyond the walls for miles in every direction. Bab al-Yemen has somehow managed the transition. Unlike some Arab markets, fetishized for tourists in places like Cairo and Jerusalem, Bab al-Yemen embraces its original incarnation—market, playground and meeting place.”