Haid Al-Jazil could well be one of the most unique places on the planet. The precarious village is perched on a giant rock and overlooks a long, mostly deserted valley in the Yemeni district of Dawan in Hadhramaut province.
Of the hundreds of people who once called this village home decades ago, a 2004 census revealed a population of just 17, all of them defying isolation, loneliness and some of the toughest topography.
Abu Baker Ahmad Bamousa Al Amoudi, his wife, and their eight children are the only family who live in their home alone; others share.
“My late father advised me to stay here until I die. My father and mother lived and were buried here,” the 49-year-old farmer says as he gives us rare access to his remote abode.
Inside the small village
Al Amoudi's mud-brick home is one of 45 in the village and one of just three that are habitable. It offers an impressive view of the valley and its palm groves. A fresh breeze blows on us as we enter the property.
Years of heavy rains, erosion and a lack of regular upkeep have left almost 70 per cent of homes in ruins. “Look at my house,” he says with pride, pointing towards his green guest room. “It looks new and beautiful. I quickly fix problems; it survived while others fell apart.” From its position on the clifftop, he is able to keep an eye on his farmland below. Many years ago, he and his neighbours used to walk on rooftops to visit nearby relatives. “We have an interrelated large family [the Al Amoudi tribe] who lived here for ages,” he says.
As we wander around this intriguing village that dates back 500 years, we find out that the architecture of the structures here was partially responsible for many that collapsed. “Look at that house, once it was teeming with people – 30 people used to live there,” says Al Amoudi, pointing to a derelict property coated with clay. A date engraved on its wooden door tells us it was built almost 100 years ago. Rainwater weakened its foundation and termites gnawed at the wooden ceiling and structural pillars.
The streets we walk along are dirty, narrow and quiet. The only sounds that break the silence are those of the farmer’s donkey or the chirping birds overhead. Our host earns a living by cultivating a farm down deep in the valley. His wealthy relatives in Saudi Arabia also contribute to his survival by sending the family money. There is no school or health facility here. There is no convenience store either. The sick are carried on donkey to the valley and then taken by car to a local hospital, which is almost an hour’s drive away.
Life in isolation
Al Amoudi’s sons used to make their way to junior school there on foot, until a small lorry became available. They dropped out of secondary school when the expense became too much for their father to bear. “I asked them to stay at home, since I had no money to pay for their education,” he says quietly as if a little ashamed.
His six girls have never been to school. “Girls cannot go alone as the road is long and unpaved,” he admits, adding that the villagers put a gate at the main entrance to Haid Al-Jazil four years ago after a thief was caught trying to break into one of the homes. Today, visitors must ring the gatekeeper to gain entry. “I do not open the gate in the evening even if someone calls me,” Al Amoudi says.
The population has fallen dramatically in the past three decades, with many locals relocating to Saudi Arabia where the salaries and lifestyle are more appealing. Those who stayed behind were mostly children or the elderly.
Al Amoudi says that when the older generation died, the younger residents opted to do what their fathers had done before them and head to Mukalla – a port city and the capital of Yemen’s Hadhramaut governorate.
An optimistic outlook for the future
Life here is not easy. The condition of the roads means only off-road cars are able to navigate the way here. Below, there is a small village where people park cars and then load their donkeys for the trek on a high road that is paved with cobblestones. Despite the difficulties, the farmer believes the younger villagers are better off than their ancestors were.
“Life was much harder [when I was young]. Thanks to God, now water is supplied to my house through pipes and there is electricity,” he tells me. The main power grids were built by the local authorities in Hadhramaut, and villagers can access electricity between 6pm and 5am daily. Water services were funded by Saudi philanthropists from Dawan district.
________________
Read more
Egypt's elusive nomadic Bishara tribe and their Gabal Elba home
Fadi Kattan: The Palestinian chef dishing gourmet cuisine under occupation
Amman's first English-language lending library has more than 27,000 books
________________
It’s rare for Haid Al-Jazil to attract outside interest, especially in today’s political climate, with the civil war raging around them. There is a large contingent of security forces in place in Dawan, which has a permanent military outpost where soldiers are trained. It’s also where the army has set up checkpoints, and where raids have been launched on suspected Al Qaeda hideouts.
A compound of mud brick chalets were built 10 years ago by Saudi businessman Abdullah Ahmed Bugshan, overlooking the village with foreign guests charged 15,000 Yemeni riyals (Dh220) per night.
After spending some time in Al Amoud’s beloved Haid Al-Jazil and getting to know the man who wouldn’t give this life up for anything, it is obvious that he remains optimistic that its best days will be back, but first the roads need fixing and expanding.
“We just want the road to be paved, and I assure you that people would come back to their homes.”
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
The%20specs%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2.0-litre%204cyl%20turbo%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E261hp%20at%205%2C500rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E400Nm%20at%201%2C750-4%2C000rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E7-speed%20dual-clutch%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFuel%20consumption%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E10.5L%2F100km%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh129%2C999%20(VX%20Luxury)%3B%20from%20Dh149%2C999%20(VX%20Black%20Gold)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The%C2%A0specs%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E4.4-litre%2C%20twin-turbo%20V8%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Eeight-speed%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E617hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E750Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Efrom%20Dh630%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The 15 players selected
Muzzamil Afridi, Rahman Gul, Rizwan Haider (Dezo Devils); Shahbaz Ahmed, Suneth Sampath (Glory Gladiators); Waqas Gohar, Jamshaid Butt, Shadab Ahamed (Ganga Fighters); Ali Abid, Ayaz Butt, Ghulam Farid, JD Mahesh Kumara (Hiranni Heros); Inam Faried, Mausif Khan, Ashok Kumar (Texas Titans
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
