Thula: The Enchanted City - City (Issue Three)

Arabia Felix Magazine
Thula: The Enchanted City
By
January 1, 2006, 01:43

A new generation is bringing prosperity to a town that twenty years ago was facing extreme poverty. This generation is led by the prodigious linguist Zam-Zam (11) who lives with her parents in a small stone house on a terrace that overlooks the valley beneath Thula. Like many of her friends, Zam-Zam has picked up Italian, Spanish, French and a smattering of English from passing tourists. These children have branched out into independant businesses of their own as tour guides, mostly selling scarves, but occasionally jewelry or fruit or tea or other trinkets to anyone with a crisp two-hundred riyal note. When the children are not reviving the fortunes of their native village, they are either in school or here in the public square playing and teaching one another the basics of the classic Yemeni folk dances.

Some of the other children of Thula keep busy during the summer months by reconstructing a massive wall on the north-eastern flank of the town. This construction involves the mining of limestone from a nearby quarry, the bringing of blocks to a site near the wall and the hewing of these blocks to fit the demands of the local mason.

It may be due to the strength of these walls that Thula remained so long an unconquered outpost of the Turkish Empire. In the 16th century local militias repulsed the invading Turks with firearms supplied by Turkish traders and held out thereafter in Thula for three more centuries. Now, these same stones also pave the streets, line the cisterns and are the main unit of construction for every house in the city.

THE ART OF THE DEAL
The first order of business is to rope in the customer. In Thula, no one is shy about approaching a potential mark.

Selling involves eye contact. A good salesman makes it constant, believes in it and uses it to her advantage.

Use humor. Nothing sells like a smile.

If the customer can't count properly, and the error is in your favor, you may choose to set the confused buyer on the right path. Or you may choose the path of silence.

On the northeastern edge of town an ancient well provides water for the families of Thula.

Almost all the villages in the hills above Sana'a have origins that reach back to Sabean times. Thula is no exception. Though the stone tower houses that constitute the village today are of relatively recent vintage, the same methods of construction and materials obtained three-thousand years ago, when Thula was a remote agricultural outpost of the Sabean empire. Thula still has a provincial feel. It is a farming village that supports itself on its flocks and its fields and its occasional foray into the masonry business. Now that tourism is giving a boost to the local economy, some of the houses are being kneaded and propped into veritable suburban mansions. In fact, this, too, is in keeping with the history of the area since munificent imams occasionally devolved staggering gifts on remote outposts, such as Thula. Local legend has it that the village was founded because a passing member of the imam's court, delayed one evening with a train of sick donkeys, was obliged to put in for a night at the foot of the towering cliff above the town. He took shelter in one of the luxurious and spacious caves that dot the foot of the monolith and spent the night there in a stupor of depression. Yet, when he awoke, he saw to his delight, that the valley beneath him was yet green and the pools of water at his feet as clear as glass. He immediately untethered the donkeys from their bags, whereupon they rose as one, relieved to be free of their burdens and overjoyed at the lush prospect before them. The courtier plunged his arms into the saddlebags, which contained pure gold bullion and distributed these like crumbs of bread across the surface of the earth. On these riches was the city of Thula founded.

About three dozen tourists visit Thula everyday. But the eyes of the children of Thula still retain an intense curiousity when the camera lens is pointed in their direction. They are proud, but inquisitive and open - like children everywhere in Yemen. Since Thula is a small village, there are few families, and all are connected to all in one way or another. These two boys below are friends. And yet somewhere in the not-too-distant past it is likely that their genealogical paths, like strangers in the night, crossed once, maybe twice.