Desecration is the cruel act of stripping away something’s sacred essence, a heartless violation that mocks or destroys what a person or community holds as holy. This is the pain Sana'a endured, her cherished sanctity torn apart with contempt.

Sana'a is the capital city of Yemen. Sana’a is born from legend and shaped by the hands of ancient builders.  It is situated at the western foot of Mount Nuqum, at an elevation of more than 7,200 feet (2,200 metres) above sea level, in the western part of the country. 

The city’s name means 'fortified place'. Sana'a has been the chief economic, political, and religious centre of the Yemen Highlands for many centuries. 

Blessings

Early Arab and Islamic historians attribute its foundation to Shem, the son of Noah, a figure whose name became closely linked with the city’s origins. Whether myth or memory, the story reflects how deeply Sana’a is rooted in human imagination. 

Over centuries, the city developed a unique architectural identity: tower-like houses built from baked brick and rammed earth, adorned with white gypsum patterns and stained-glass qamariyyah windows glowing like jewels at sunset. 

In 1986, UNESCO inscribed the Old City of Sana’a on the World Heritage List, calling it “an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement… that has preserved its appearance and character for more than 2,500 years.” 

Travellers throughout history have been captivated by Sana’a’s beauty. The Danish explorer Carsten Niebuhr wrote in 1763: “Sana'a is a delightful highland city; its air is pure, and its houses rise in astonishing beauty.” 

Historic Ottoman records once praised the fertility of Sana’a’s surrounding valleys, noting: “Its land, once touched by rain, produces blessings without hesitation.” But war, drought, and unchecked urban expansion have consumed these once-green landscapes. 

Near-collapse

But today, the city once called “a paradise on the mountain plateau” stands at the edge of environmental collapse. Sana’a has been under siege physically, economically, and ecologically since war began in September 2014. Its water, land, and fragile ecosystems are breaking under the pressure.

Terraces that once formed green geometric patterns along the mountain slopes now crumble or lie abandoned. The land mirrors the people: exhausted, waiting for relief that rarely comes. 

Even before the war, Sana’a was considered one of the most water-stressed cities on Earth. However, the conflict has escalated a crisis into a catastrophe. 

Groundwater levels in Sana’a Basin were dropping at an unprecedented rate of six to eight meters per year. More than 385,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition and are fighting for their lives.

UNICEF has reported a lack of consistent access to safe water due to fuel shortages, damaged pumps, and the near-collapse of municipal infrastructure. It concluded: "Sana’a faces the possibility of running out of economically viable groundwater within decades.”  

Sana'a stands tall as if to say, 'I am wounded, but I will not be broken'.

Oil

The current conflict has led to economic decline and the collapsed public services, leaving 18 million people without clean water. 

The World Health Organisation estimates outdoor air pollution causes about 1,100 premature deaths annually.

Air pollution in Yemen is primarily caused by vehicle emissions, particularly in cities such as Sana’a, followed by the oil industry in coastal areas. Urbanisation, desalination plants, mining, quarrying, power plants, and heavy construction equipment also contribute. 

Teeters

The ecosystem, like the heritage architecture, is cracking under pressure. Prolonged conflict, recurring drought, overexploitation, and widespread land degradation have accelerated habitat loss and genetic erosion of these ecologically and culturally important trees. 

Yemen has experienced a significant decline in native plant species, particularly the Sidr (Ziziphus spina-christi), olive (Olea europaea), and various Acacia species, which dominate traditional woodlands such as the Tihama and Acacia-Commiphora ecosystems.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), environmental infrastructure in Sana’a and elsewhere teeters on the brink of total collapse, crippled by restrictions that block the import of spare parts for water systems, chemicals essential for purification, fuel to run municipal pumps, and even basic tools for environmental monitoring. 

Occupations

As a result, mountains of uncollected garbage rot in the streets, raw sewage floods neighbourhoods, and polluted water seeps into underground aquifers, poisoning the limited sources Yemenis still have. 

Yet, Sana'a - the "impregnable fortress" - remains standing tall, as if to say, 'I am wounded, but I will not be broken'. 

For the past 2,500 years, Sana'a has rebuilt itself after invasions, epidemics, revolutions, and colonial occupations by the Abyssinians (Ethiopians), Persians (Sassanids), Ottoman Turks, Kurds (Ayyubids), and Egyptians (Nasserists). 

Minarets

It is one of the oldest Arab cities to have been subjected to foreign occupation, but each time it revolted and regained its independence. 

Each time, the city utilised its ingenious earthen architecture and sophisticated water harvesting systems, inherited through generations, to rebuild and revive it anew.

Today it needs to reconstruct sustainable water networks by combining traditional canals with solar-powered pumps and modern filtration systems, restore ancient agricultural terraces to protect the remaining arable land and combat food insecurity, implement an air quality monitoring system, and restrict imports of polluting fuels to reduce deadly pollution. 

It also needs to expand the UNESCO and EU-supported "cash-for-work" programmes which currently employ young people to install mud-brick towers and revive crafts in the old city, and reintroduce native plants and rooftop gardens to restore degraded ecosystems and naturally cool the city. 

These steps are not theoretical: the EU-funded heritage project alone has preserved hundreds of historic houses while creating jobs, and community-led rehabilitation of terraces is already underway in surrounding areas. 

The people of Sana'a have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to rebuild using local materials and traditional knowledge. With targeted international support that respects these traditions instead of replacing them, the City of a Thousand Minarets can rise again.

This Author

Samar Azazi is a Yemeni scholar specialising in women, gender, development, and postcolonial studies in the Middle East. She is a research fellow under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) programme and is pursuing a PhD in Development Studies at the School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies (SGTDS), Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU), Kottayam, Kerala, India.