Shaykh Hilal Beehive Houses

Shaykh Hilal is a steppe village 95 km east of Hama and 55 km northeast of Salamiyah, known for its mudbrick beehive houses. The houses are built of clay mixed with straw, and the domes rise up to 5 m. A 2007 survey counted 133 houses and 348 domes in the village. Between 2007 and 2011 some of them were restored and turned into guesthouses.

Where it is

The village is in al-Saan subdistrict of Salamiyah District, in a semi-arid belt where rainfall is around 200 mm a year. It is reached by steppe roads from Hama or Salamiyah. Before setting out, ask in Salamiyah about the road and the current security situation in the area.

How the houses were built

The village was founded by Ismaili families from the coastal mountains, around Qadmus and Masyaf. They built their houses on the ruins of a Byzantine town and reused the old stones. Each house is arranged around a closed courtyard, a well and a pen for animals. The flat stones that project from the outside of the domes serve as steps during maintenance.

The founding date depends on the source: one study gives 1920, another source the 1930s. The name comes from Rasm Shaykh Hilal, recorded since the 1890s and named after a local Bedouin sheikh.

What to see

Clusters of domes and the courtyards between them. At the 2007 count, 30 per cent of the houses were in good condition and 45 had been abandoned; about 150 families, some 700 people, lived in the village. Another source counts more than 140 houses and over 300 domes.

Around the village are three underground water channels, or qanats, from the Byzantine or Abbasid period. They were used for irrigation until the 1940s.

Restoration and guesthouses

Between 2007 and 2011 the Friends of Salamiyah Association, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and a French aid organisation restored 12 domes in 6 houses. Bathrooms were added and the houses became guesthouses. Visitor numbers rose from 41 in 2008 to 335 in 2010. The project stopped in 2011, and there is no recent record of whether the guesthouses still operate.

How long it takes

An hour. The village is small; that is enough to walk between the dome clusters and look into a courtyard. People live in most of the houses, so courtyards are entered only by invitation.

Do not miss

The projecting stones on the outside of the domes. From a distance they look like decoration, but they are the steps people climb when the clay plaster is renewed. If a householder agrees, asking how the plaster is refreshed explains how the house stays standing.