Manakhah District
Capital district
Manacha (also Manacha, Menacha written Manakhah; Arab مناخة, Manaha DMG ) is a district Yemeni capital Sanaa Governorate. The city lies on a narrow hillside ridge between two mountain ranges in about 1500 m altitude. For a long time the village stronghold of the Ottoman occupation army.
History
Manacha was founded in the 17th century, far from a small Jewish settlement. Greater importance attained the place then in 1872, when the Ottomans al Hudaydah advancing towards Sana'a and in Manacha force orographic conditions identified an important strategic point. This is bidding terrain advantage meant that the city was elected military site and was expanded into the highlands for the movement of goods from the Red Sea to trading checkpoint. Finally, Manacha swung during the second Ottoman occupation (1872-1918) on a garrison town and the administrative center. Even today testify several government buildings ( in a still resides today, the district governor ( Mudir al - Mudiriyya ) ), the former telegraph office, the Citadel with its granary and a military hospital, the Ottoman architectural influences in the city. Due to its exposed location, the city had never had a city wall.
Until shortly after the Second World War lived in Manacha through a Jewish minority. As part of Operation Magic Carpet Jewish citizens left the city to move to the newly established State of Israel. This meant for the remaining population has a bitter loss, because with the departure of the Jews fell many important trades workers, in particular the silversmithing from. Many crafts were mostly alone in Jewish hands. With their mass emigration the traditional craft was lost almost all over the country. Complicating the city, leaving several years of drought in the 1950s, interest in Manacha continue to fall, so the city today just population of just over 7400 inhabitants. The entire management unit Manacha has around 89,400 inhabitants.
Economy
Manacha is an important market town in the Haraz Mountains. A stationary market is held daily. Sunday is the weekly market. The weekly market serves an extensive in size of a football field segment of Sanaa in leading into the city street. Since time immemorial Manacha is explained by the surrounding tribes into a kind of neutral zone whose protection they guarantee together. This is especially true for the market and its visitors. The store manager will benefit the common law recognized Haram rule that prohibits that market participants argue or deal even physically; this rule serves the market peace. Violators will be punished severely and can lead to the loss of one's own goods, as a last resort even of life. Due to the threat of sanctions is to ensure that trade and exchange of goods between tribes not completely come to a halt even in times of war.
Attractions
High above the town is the Citadel stemming from the Ottoman era and the great granary. The latter is surrounded by a wall and next to a cistern there are several sunken into the ground pantries. The storage of grain was underground. The chambers were sealed with soil. The connected barracks are still used today.
An interesting Ottoman building - today, however, strongly attacked - is the hospital. Access is via a wide external staircase. The hospital was subsequently used as a madrasa, then as an elementary school, which now houses the Ministry of Education. The square in front of the hospital is " Gate of the Shrine " ( Bab al -Guba ) called, where take the Ismaili pilgrims tours to Hutayb their starting point.
The city has about ten mosques. In regard to the population of which is a high rate. Most are small and inconspicuous.
Environment
Quite near Manacha is about 5 km away and 500 m higher up, due to its gorgeous mountain architecture regarded as one of the most beautiful cities of Yemen Al- Hajjarah.