The city is built on a rocky spur several hundred meters above the wadi bed, and superseded an earlier settlement that was partly destroyed by a massive flood in 1532-3. The Juma (Friday) mosque dates largely from the 9th -10th century and the castle from the 13th century. However, the earliest settlement originated in the pre-Islamic period. The dense layout of Shibam surrounded by contiguous tower houses within the outer walls expressed an urban response to the need for refuge and protection by rival families, as well as their economic and political prestige. Inscribed in UNESCO World heritage list in 1982, the walled city of Shibam considered as an outstanding but extremely vulnerable expression of Arab and Muslim traditional culture.
