Al-Andalus
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Living on a mountaintop
Abduljabbar Zeyad
In villages perched high on a mountain in western Yemen, residents are a safe distance from a conflict raging through most of the country, but they endure a hardscrabble existence little changed from hundreds of years ago.
Long used to a livelihood without electricity or running water, they have felt little impact from the 18 months of civil war which have cut those essential services to many of Yemen's 28 million people.
A woman uses a stone grinder to make flour in her house.
But far from a country idyll, the sunny days in the crisp green hills are a medieval struggle for survival.
People in the Jafariya district of the western Raymah province haul basic goods uphill by foot, donkeyback and even a pulley-powered cable car soaring between peaks.
"It really hurts my back. I wish there was another solution to move the goods because the elevator isn't safe and could lead to a fall," the child lamented.
Mohammad Yahya Haidar, 65, takes the sweet with the bitter.
"Despite the difficulty of life, we're still living here, just as our fathers and our ancestors did. We grow coffee and grain like they did, and we've grown accustomed to this life with all its cruelty and extreme hardship."
Traditional cisterns cut into the rock capture rainwater and many of the stone buildings in the area have withstood the elements for hundreds of years.
Pregnant women suffering complications and immobile patients are lucky to survive the eight-hour carried on men's shoulders in makeshift stretchers.
There are more photos in the link above.
