By Anis Albasha
It was a beautiful sunny day like most of the
days in Sana’a, the capital city of Yemen. We were heading off to ‘Bait Baus
Village’ which is a historical Jewish
village located in the southern suburb of Sana’a. When we arrived in the area, we got lost. We didn’t
know which road to take to reach our destination. So, we had to stop the car
and ask a taxi driver that happened to pass by. We innocently asked him :” do
you know where the Jewish village is?” for some reason, the man got mad and
gave us an angry look! Then he wrathfully said:” it’s not a Jewish village! It’s
name is Bait Baus village.”
Frankly speaking, we couldn’t understand his
reaction and we didn’t expect that any of the locals would reject the
Jewish label. That’s because Jews were part of the Yemeni history and the existence
of that village is proof of that part. Ironically, some historical references
suggest that Baus is a Jewish man who built the village!
Anyway, the taxi driver showed us the way and
we finally got there. And even though the village is not so much visited, we saw
some local visitors with their children. The moment we entered the village, we felt
that we crossed a door to the past. The place is unbelievably ancient but unfortunately
abandoned . The houses are in a very dilapidated condition and are prone to
collapse at any moment. However, we wandered
around and took so many pictures.
