The Seiyun Palace, also called the Kathiri Sultan's Palace, is the largest and most spectacular building in the Hadramawt. Seven storeys of white-plastered mud brick rise from a low base of stone, with tall pointed windows on every floor — a kind of sugar-frosting confection that looks improbable in its dusty surroundings.
The interior, in its functioning years, housed the Seiyun Museum, with collections covering Hadrami crafts, pre-Islamic archaeology and ethnography. As with most of Yemen's cultural infrastructure, the war has left its current status uncertain. From outside, the palace remains worth seeing from a distance simply for the visual shock of its scale and whiteness against the wadi cliffs.