Blowhard, Esq. writes:
Tower houses are a form of building unique to southern Arabia. They originated in pre-Islamic times in the south of Yemen, where tribal strife was the motivation for developing an effective way of building defensive towers out of local materials…Most tower houses are at least five stories high, and some reach as many as eight or nine. The vertical arrangement follows an upward transition from public to private space…In a rural area, the ground floor, apart from the entrance hall, is for animals and the storage of wood, fruit, and grain; in towns, it is used for shops and stores.
…
The foundations of the tower houses are constructed using stone or earth (sun-dried clay, mud blocks, or fired bricks). In the city, the ground and first floors are made of tufa, and the upper floors of fired bricks. The facades of the houses are typically highly decorated, as are the windows and doors.
— Building Without Architects: A Global Guide to Everyday Architecture
Related
- I stole a couple of photos from this guy’s excellent Flickr page.
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
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Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
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Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
A good travel book about Yemen:
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Sadly photos of the interiors are much harder to come by. From what I can tell one whole floor is usually devoted to a large room for the men to gather in for chewing khat.
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The book I quoted from verifies that: “The highest level contains the mufraj, a private sitting room reserved for special guests and family members. The men gather here in the afternoon to exchange conversation, smoke their water pipes, chew fresh leaves of the qat plant, and listen to poetry or music.”
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Sounds fun.
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Tyler Cowen was recently discussing on what country was more exotic: Yemen or Bolivia. He voted for Bolivia, but, wow, these pictures of Yemen make it look pretty wild.
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