Tarim sits about thirty kilometres east of Seiyun, where the wadi narrows and the cliffs close in. It is the spiritual capital of the Hadramawt and one of the most religiously conservative towns in Yemen. The skyline is a forest of minarets, the streets are lined with low whitewashed mud-brick houses and small shrines, and the famous Dar al-Mustafa Islamic academy attracts students from across the Muslim world.
Tarim also preserves an unusual concentration of late-19th and early-20th century palaces — buildings like Qasr al-'Ishshah — built by Hadrami merchants who had made fortunes in the Indian Ocean trade. Their decoration mixes Arab, Indian and South-East Asian motifs in ways you see nowhere else.