The Wadi Hadramawt extends east from Shibam for hundreds of kilometres, and the obvious onward stops are the older Hadrami towns nearer to Sayun. Sayun, twenty minutes by road, has a tall whitewashed sultan's palace that rises from the valley floor and is now an archaeological museum. Tarim, another half hour east, is famous for its mud-brick mosques — over a hundred at the historic peak — and for the Hadrami merchant houses that bear the influence of trading wealth from Indonesia and the Indian Ocean.
To the south, the cliff-perched village of Hajarayn sits on a sheer rock spur above a side wadi and is the most dramatic of all the smaller Hadrami villages — a half-day's drive on a sometimes rough road. The pre-Islamic sites of Baraqish and Marib are far enough across the desert that they really need their own multi-day trip rather than a day excursion.