The city of Sana'a is really two cities: the old city and the new city. More on the new city later. The old city is like an extended white iced ginger bread village, with buildings that thrust and rise from the ground like rising dough. It does not have the absolute symmetry of U.S. cities that I've seen before, cities that look as if they were planned and built and whose roads lead where you expect them to. Old Sana'a is a city that appears to have grown rather than been built by humans. The roads meander and cure through the city and the traveler learns to follow the exact path to wherever they want to go. Paths that logic seems to dictate are shortcuts are more often than not veritable rabbit holes that will take you to places completely different and unexpected. The city seems to breath and shift as you move through its curved bridges and smooth, stone paved roads. The buildings seem to be at once sharp and smooth, completely choatic, and yet sublimely symmetrical in its chaos.
The city is breathtaking, the architecture like a window into an Ottoman city at the height of the empire, or like what one would imagine a city to look like if it were alive. Cool blue mountains jut from just behind the city, like a mother cradling a child. And perhaps appropriately considering that UNESCO has named old Sana'a a World Heritage site. Thankfully that designation has helped to greatly alleviate the encroachement of new buildings into the city, though the city is still at risk, because unlike many other world heritage cites, people still live in Old Sana'a.
But as spectacular as the city looks, it is for the Market (bil arabi: "Souq")that most travelers (including yours truly) actually come for. More on the Souq later.
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