1. Home
  2. Slideshows
  3. Paint the town red (or blue, or white) in 8 colorful Middle East cities

Paint the town red (or blue, or white) in 8 colorful Middle East cities

Published November 3rd, 2015 - 07:50 GMT

How many crayons do you need to color the Middle East? Consider its vast deserts, calm seas, and clear night skies, and your mind fills with wide swaths of yellow, blue and star-studded black. Nature influences the colors of man-made MENA too, when building materials are sourced from local mud, sand and stone.

Historically, people adopt a singular style by tapping into cultural traditions. Governments often impose building standards that homogenize a city's look. And while infatuated clients often allow their modern "starchitects" to force design on a building's occupants, what happens when visual uniformity develops across an entire city? Check out eight places that pay tribute to a single color.

 

View as a slider
View as a list
Petra Treasury

Nestled within the mountains south of the Dead Sea, the ancient Nabatean city of Petra, or the Rose City, is Jordan’s most famous attraction. Petra, which means "stone" in Greek,is one of the earliest known settlements in the Middle East. Its sandstone structures glow red in morning sunlight.

Umm Qais

Little in the Middle East is black and white, except in a Decapolis city once called Gadara. Roman ruins mix with an abandoned Ottoman village in Jordan's modern Umm Qais, built from black basalt stone and pale granite. The site boasts spectacular views of Jordan, Syria, Israel and Palestine - four nations with many shades of grey.

Tel Aviv White City

In 2003, UNESCO named Tel Aviv's "White City" a World Heritage Site for its 4,000+ Bauhaus Style buildings - the largest number in any one city. Also referred to as International Style, the gleaming white buildings were built in the 1930s by German Jewish architects who immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine to escape Nazism.

Chefchaouen Blue city

Why so blue? Founded in Morocco's Rif Mountains in 1471 by Moulay Ali Ben Moussa Ben Rached El Alami as a base for Moors exiled from Spain, Chefchaouen's vibrant blue buildings mirror its cloudless sky. Religious traditions culled from Islam, Judaism and Christianity underpin the choice of hue, which is meant to remind occupants of God’s power.

Amman Jordan

Amman architecture looks like Lego buildings made from a set of only-beige bricks. Stone was widely used in Jordan building since prehistory, but now it's just used as a veneer on concrete block buildings. This limestone cladding is what gives Amman, the capital city, its unique homogeneous character.

Jazirat al-Hamra

The UAE's Jazirat al-Hamra was inhabited by pearl divers and fisherman since the 16th C. Its houses were built from pink coral rag or bricks made of crushed coral, and large pieces of coral are found in the oldest walls. Uninhabited since 1968 and allegedly haunted, its pink-toned structures make the site a favorite for fashion shoots.

Ashgabat Turkmenistan

The Turkmenistan capital Ashgabat won a 2013 Guinness World Record for the world's highest concentration of white marble structures - 543 buildings clad in 4.5 MIL m3 of Italian-imported stone. By night, powerful lights make the stark white buildings pulsate with psychedelic color. The city is eerily empty at night, so who is watching the show?

Shibam Yemen mud towers

Yemen’s Shibam is one of few cities to be designated - in its entirety - as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Flanked by steep cliffs, its 500 coffee-colored housing blocks rise from the plains to reach an astounding 100 feet in height, nearly as tall as Chicago’s first skyscrapers. Built almost five centuries ago, the city is made only from mud!

Petra Treasury
Umm Qais
Tel Aviv White City
Chefchaouen Blue city
Amman Jordan
Jazirat al-Hamra
Ashgabat Turkmenistan
Shibam Yemen mud towers
Petra Treasury
Nestled within the mountains south of the Dead Sea, the ancient Nabatean city of Petra, or the Rose City, is Jordan’s most famous attraction. Petra, which means "stone" in Greek,is one of the earliest known settlements in the Middle East. Its sandstone structures glow red in morning sunlight.
Umm Qais
Little in the Middle East is black and white, except in a Decapolis city once called Gadara. Roman ruins mix with an abandoned Ottoman village in Jordan's modern Umm Qais, built from black basalt stone and pale granite. The site boasts spectacular views of Jordan, Syria, Israel and Palestine - four nations with many shades of grey.
Tel Aviv White City
In 2003, UNESCO named Tel Aviv's "White City" a World Heritage Site for its 4,000+ Bauhaus Style buildings - the largest number in any one city. Also referred to as International Style, the gleaming white buildings were built in the 1930s by German Jewish architects who immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine to escape Nazism.
Chefchaouen Blue city
Why so blue? Founded in Morocco's Rif Mountains in 1471 by Moulay Ali Ben Moussa Ben Rached El Alami as a base for Moors exiled from Spain, Chefchaouen's vibrant blue buildings mirror its cloudless sky. Religious traditions culled from Islam, Judaism and Christianity underpin the choice of hue, which is meant to remind occupants of God’s power.
Amman Jordan
Amman architecture looks like Lego buildings made from a set of only-beige bricks. Stone was widely used in Jordan building since prehistory, but now it's just used as a veneer on concrete block buildings. This limestone cladding is what gives Amman, the capital city, its unique homogeneous character.
Jazirat al-Hamra
The UAE's Jazirat al-Hamra was inhabited by pearl divers and fisherman since the 16th C. Its houses were built from pink coral rag or bricks made of crushed coral, and large pieces of coral are found in the oldest walls. Uninhabited since 1968 and allegedly haunted, its pink-toned structures make the site a favorite for fashion shoots.
Ashgabat Turkmenistan
The Turkmenistan capital Ashgabat won a 2013 Guinness World Record for the world's highest concentration of white marble structures - 543 buildings clad in 4.5 MIL m3 of Italian-imported stone. By night, powerful lights make the stark white buildings pulsate with psychedelic color. The city is eerily empty at night, so who is watching the show?
Shibam Yemen mud towers
Yemen’s Shibam is one of few cities to be designated - in its entirety - as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Flanked by steep cliffs, its 500 coffee-colored housing blocks rise from the plains to reach an astounding 100 feet in height, nearly as tall as Chicago’s first skyscrapers. Built almost five centuries ago, the city is made only from mud!

You may also like

Subscribe

Sign up to our newsletter for exclusive updates and enhanced content
Subscribe Now
Loading content ...