Imam Yahya Palace in Yemen

The Dar al Khayyar Palace, standing on top of an impregnable cliff— is a very famous landmark of Yemen. There are a lot of interesting places and monuments on the territory of this country.

In accordance with this very ancient architectural style, the window is divided into two parts: the lower part is an ordinary window, and the upper part is an intricate stained glass window made of colored glass and translucent alabaster.

Today there is a museum in the Imam's Palace, while the Palace itself serves as its main exhibit. 

The walls of the Palace are made of baked clay bricks, and the ornament of the window openings is made of white plaster. Such plaster window frames in the style of "Tahrim" in our time have been preserved exclusively in Yemen. 

The architectural style of the Imam's Palace exactly repeats the style of the houses standing in the old part of Sanaa. Archaeologists claim that such houses were built in Ancient Babylon. 

The modern version of the palace has 7 floors and 35 rooms. There is an ancient well on a rock near the Imam's Palace, the depth of which reaches 275 meters. 

The multi-storey Dar al Khayyar Palace served as the summer residence of Imam Yahya. The building itself is an expanded reconstruction of the palace, built in this place in 1786, which in turn was erected on the site of an even older building.

Imam Yahya was killed by assassins in 1948 during a coup d'etat.

True, it was army officers who studied abroad who formed the main forces of the opposition, which fought against the unlimited power of the imam. 

He actively suppressed separatist movements and was able to achieve international recognition of Yemen. The imam supported an obviously feudal order, but it was during his rule that Yemenis got access to education abroad for the first time.

The methods of the imam's rule were primitive-simple (they say that he kept even the state treasury almost under his bed), but he was certainly a talented leader, and he managed to do a lot for his native country.

Imam Yahya (1897-1948) ruled his country for a long time, having enormous power comparable to that of an absolute monarch. Both the national Treasury and tax collections were under his personal control. 

For example, the capital of Yemen, the city of Sanaa, is one of the oldest cities in the world, and the entire old part of the city is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The historic city of Zabid and the clay-walled city of Shibam are also included in this list.