Yemeni Tower Houses

The Great Mosque at Sana'a is organized around a central courtyard measuring approximately 80 meters long by 60 meters wide. To the north and south are its prayer areas, with five and four aisles, respectively. To the east and west of the courtyard are halls of three aisles each. Arcades mainly composed of pre-Islamic material from other sites form the aisles of these sections. Inside the court, not exactly at its center, stands a domed square structure that dates to the early sixteenth century when the courtyard itself was paved. Although this Ottoman building somewhat resembles the Ka'ba at Mecca, with its ablaq design of alternating layers of varying colored material, scholars argue that it was probably not modeled after it, as the ablaq technique of construction predates Islam in the region. It served as a treasury and then a storage unit for waqf documents. Source: http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=7731 [Accessed August 7, 2012]general view, San'a, panoramic view to northeast from Al-Abhar Square, with minarets of Great Mosque in San'a cityscape, July 198