Dar al-Hajar

Dar al-Hajar, the Rock Palace, is a former royal summer residence built atop a natural rock pinnacle in the Wadi Dhahr valley outside Sana'a. Its several storeys of mud brick and stone rise seamlessly from the crag, so that palace and rock appear to be a single form. Built in the early twentieth century for a Yemeni imam on the site of older structures, it has become an emblem of highland Yemeni architecture. Visitors can climb through its narrow rooms and window recesses and look out over the surrounding valley of gardens.