Raised Guards:Your Crops Were Under Our Eyes

"Now, I may look like an eyesore to many youngsters. But not so long ago, I stood tall, keeping an eye on the crop that sustained your grandparents. My presence marked the existence of a seemingly sleepy hamlet in every valley in the vast stretch of apparently barren land. I was all alone all the time, keeping guard. Kasaba, that was the name they called the cylindrical tower made of mud, wood and rock flakes that was me.

"Kasabas were built in the same fashion as any adobe building where the people went once their guard was down.  A tubular structure that withstood the perils of the seasons, even though it was simply made of wooden logs, twigs, mud, and rock flakes. I have puzzled over how I survived the sandstorms, rainstorms and even hailstorms that were common before you all were born over here.

"People used to mount the kasaba to stay watchful of the crops they were raising. By every growing field, every tribe used to have one or two, depending on the topography. The same must have been used to scare away animals and birds that might spoil the crops."

Recently, as I was browsing through the stacks of books at Jarir bookstore,  one book really caught my eye: Back to Earth: Adobe Building in Saudi Arabia. I spent a while thumbing through it, marveling at the curious pictures in color. I looked in amazement at those pages. Quite instinctively, I even ran my fingers over the photos to feel if what was being depicted was dirt and rock pieces structurally engineered with logs of wood. The book tells how a kasaba was built back then, and the materials used. It includes a few pictures from Abha where I am currently living. Hopefully, these structures will never be razed to the ground, but live to tell their fascinating tale to future generations.