Asir Province, Saudi Arabia. During past centuries some inhabitants of this area built their home into the side of the escarpment making it difficult for aggressors to attack them. These houses needed to be supplied with necessities which were lowered by pulley from above by friends and neighbors.

New stone/mud house next to older mud house probably built many decades ago. Straw roofed round building in foreground likely a pen for goats or sheep. Significant is an ancient tower near by which was common near the land owned by an Arab tribe (family). These towers were used to alert inhabitants living and working nearby that an ‘enemy’ or threat was approaching.
These mud houses are cool in the daytime having captured the cool desert night air. The walls are very thick and repel heat. Days often reach 130 F. Nights can see temperatures fall to 50 degrees.

Stone and Mud Houses in old village with ancient watch tower, Asir Province

Straw huts on the Jizan Plain near the Red Sea. Temperature here can reach 140F in daytime with humidity at near 100%. Village is located direcly West of Asir Province at the bottom of the escarpment or nearly 8,000 ft below the towns of Abha and Khamis Mushayt.

Straw huts similar to those in Africa directly across the Red Sea to the West.