The Romantic Ancient Capital [Archives:2001/07/Culture]

Sivadasan, 
Department of English, 
Ibb University-Ibb 
Jibla is a few kilometers away from Ibb. The beautiful hilly green arable land, surrounding a small city with more rain than the neighboring areas, cannot fail to attract you if you care for beauty in its pure sense. 
The big mosque at Jibla, built by Queen Arwa, is a marvel of ancient Yemeni architecture. The entire construction is suffused with an austere beauty, and the minaret towering over the mosque for many centuries is severely pristine in its appearance and function. The dome still keeps the prestige and glory of the kingdom as it was in the days of the elegant queen. The thick compound walls and the cellar-like passages and corridors of the mosque take you straight back to the days of the queen, and you feel as if you were in the corridors of history itself. You feel like getting in touch with the very Yemeni soul. The spirited words of the people in charge of the mosque to express their brotherhood to visitors were exhilarating. The bathrooms with running water from the natural hot-spring and the different temperature in different rooms make us feel wonder about the unique construction of the ancient mosque. 
The paved way leading to the mosque premises tells you the stories of ages that witnessed the cultural heritage and how the forefathers kept it for the posterity. The ancient residential area in the vicinity testifies the glory and manners the earlier generation had in the old capital. The palace with 360 bedrooms for the queen to sleep in, and the romantic idea of her changing the bedroom everyday for safety or fancy tickles our fancy. Doesn’t it suggest the touch of an environment in one of the stories of ‘The Arabian Nights’? However, the sad look of the dilapidated palace reminds us of the lost glory of the small old capital city of Yemen. It is rather a grand old grandma who is reluctant to accept the changes that take place around her. Maybe she is too infatuated with the glory of the past to get on with the technological developments that illuminate the other cities which shot up in the later days. Jibla is still in the trance of the past glory. 
The museum near the palace with all the traditional items used by the people and the queen in those days shows rich cultural background of the city. Everyone you meet there including the young children who accompany the visitors seems to have imbibed the proud heritage of the ancient city. Everything was active, alert and live except the dry field in the outskirts in the off-season. 



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