Shaberqa

The village of Shabarqa is located in Bani Hassan Governorate in the Al-Baha area, located southwest of the Kingdom, and on the tourist road linking Al-Baha and Al-Mindaq Governorate, about 15 km to the northwest from the city of Al-Baha. It is one of the villages of the Al-Sarat Mountains and mainly includes the houses of the sheikhs of Bani Hassan Al-Aidan. The old heritage community in the village includes a group of molithic and contiguous residential buildings located at the foot of the mountain and are surrounded by modern houses at the top and sides. The number of old houses in this assembly is few, and in its appearance it is like a single castle consisting of a group of houses superimposed on top of each other. This residential community features a pyramid-shaped square tower that is raised around it and is distinguished by its white coating and is located on its eastern end. It is noted that construction craftsmen have been creative in dealing with the natural nature of the sloping rocky earth. Most of the houses of this beautiful gathering consist of one or two floors with a number of three-storey houses, but they are partially dilapsed and abandoned. It generally appears homogeneously with the slope of the natural ground for its site despite the distortion that occurred from the construction of a number of modern buildings around it. The construction was carried out using compact volcanic stones, which are of different sizes and various shapes and colors, and they were installed on top of each other in a technical way that requires high professional experience, and their shorts were carried out from the inside with a thick layer of clay and milk. The roofs were also built using tree trunks and above them a layer of tree branches, above them mud and milk, and there were found in a number of houses roofs based on rectangular wooden columns topped by a piece of the largest area that resembles the crown of the column and was known locally as (Al-Muzrah). Al-Mazrah is considered a distinctive architectural element of this architectural style in that area. The use of the mezrah came using a tree trunk in its natural form, and it was also observed that there are a number of decorations that decorate the windows and doors of a number of houses, as well as wooden balconies using tree trunks.