Hadramawt is a vast wadi region in eastern Yemen, stretching about 560 kilometres from the Arabian Sea to the Saudi border. It is one of the most spectacular landscapes in the Arabian Peninsula — a deep canyon cut through a limestone plateau, with ancient mud-brick tower cities perched along its walls.
The most remarkable of these is Shibam, a 16th-century walled city of skyscraper-like mud towers that has been called the "Manhattan of the desert." Seiyun has a white-washed sultan's palace that rises incongruously from the flat valley floor, now a museum. Tarim is known for its hundreds of mosques — including the Al-Muhdhar Mosque with its 50-metre mud-brick minaret — and its traditional Hadrami merchant architecture. Given the ongoing conflict in Yemen, travel to this region requires careful assessment of current security conditions.