Almotamar.net - The State Authority for Preservation of Historical Cities began in Shibam, Hadramout governorate works of repairs and renovation of the historical Ranad Palace at a total cost of YR 193 million.
Director General of the Authority branch of Shibam Jamal Mohammed Bamakhramah told almotamar.net that repairing operations will take 18 months with the aim of preserving the distinguished historical heritage in the city of Tarim characterized by distinguished buildings indicating the depth of history and creativity of the Yemeni mentality in the art of mud architecture in particular.
He said the total area of the palace contains many buildings, rooms and courtyard inside the citadel and many other rooms bearing beautiful artistic inscriptions and ornaments.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh had earlier instructed that the Palace of Ranad that is in the centre of the city to be rendered after it repair to a lighthouse for cultural activities in the Hadramout Wadi.
Ranad Palace is one of the old citadels in Yemen and in the city of Tarim where mud palaces were built characterized by their architectural beauty as the palaces of Islam and Mansoura and al-Shatiri mentioned it as the most important of Tarim's bastions. He pointed out that its building dates back to an ancient era before Islam whereas Abdulrahman al-Mashoor mentioned that it was built four-hundred years before the Mohammed mission and in it was found a head of an animal of white marble bearing some inscriptions with Al-Musnad writing.
The successive states of Tarim took the repair of the citadel as a gist for their rule before Islam and after it. In the year 1350 Hegira the ruler of Tarim then Mohammed Bin Muhsin al-Kathiri demolished parts of the citadel to built again according to Al-Faz that was influenced by the Indian architecture similar to other palaces and big houses in the city of Tarim.
The façade of Ranad Palace composed of two big gates on top of them there are beautiful Arabian ornaments as we;; as poetic verses commemorating the operations of renovation and reparation that done to it at various stages of its history.