Ḏī 'Ayn

Dhi Ain crowns a white rocky hill in the Tihamah foothills west of al-Bahah. Stone houses rise above gardens fed by the village spring, their roofs supported by juniper beams and some parapets adorned with white quartz. The settlement dates to the sixteenth century. Below it, the spring watered banana groves and fragrant plants; landowners divided its flow by an agreed rotation, passing the water on when each plot’s turn ended.