City of yellow stone buildings hopes for World Heritafe status

(6 Jul 2017) LEADIN:
One of the oldest cities in Jordan is bidding for a place on the UN's World Heritage list for its historic buildings.
The city of Salt wants UNESCO to grant World Heritage status to 22 yellow sandstone buildings constructed during the Ottoman era.
STORYLINE:
Daily life unfolds in the historic city of Salt, nestled in the hills not far from the Jordan River.
Walking the streets here, one feature stands out above all others: most of the buildings are yellow.
The city is hoping that 22 of its historic sandstone buildings will be added to UNESCO's World Heritage list this week.
The nominated buildings include museums, two churches, a mosque, along with others that are lived in as private homes.
One of them, the Roman Catholic Church of St Mary, features a recently renovated shrine to the Palestinian Catholic Saint Marie-Alphonsine Danil Ghattas, who was canonised in 2015, 88 years after her death.
Architect Bayan Faouri helped put the UNESCO bid together.
She says the local yellow sandstone is what makes the architecture in Salt unique.
"These yellow stones were locally mined local materials that are present even today in about four sites they were taken from the mountain," she says.
"It is easy to shape them in more than one way and the stone itself breathes and is able to absorb the air."
She believes World Heritage Status would help restore and protect the buildings by generating income through tourism.
Faouri works for Salt municipality, which has plans to restore more of the dilapidated buildings for use, including this one, Jaghbeer House.
Here, there is a lower, older floor known as a "peasant house", which is topped with grander rooms that were added later on when the city became more prosperous.
This eclectic approach is still seen in the city today, where Faouri says the old continually mixes with the new.
"People are still using it, people are still living in them, they still have shops in them. So it's living. The city is breathing."
Faouri traces the city's distinctive architecture to a historical moment when Salt attracted craftsmen from across the Middle East.
Rapid industrialisation during the Ottoman era saw craftsmen from Syria, Turkey, Gaza and the West Bank arrive in the city looking for work.
Their skills and ideas mingled and took form in the city's buildings, crafted from yellow sandstones from the local hillsides.
A retired soldier who lives in the city, Abdulmajid al-Kharabsheh, describes what happened.
"Where did the craftsmen come from? Not from Salt, from Palestine. They came to do what? They came to break the stones and they did this by finding the yellow stone and drilling a hole down into it 50 to 60 centimetres and dropping dynamite and a fuse down into it. They'd light the fuse and start yelling 'dynamite, dynamite, dynamite' so that everyone would know and move away. Then it would explode and people would get the stone."
Proponents of the UNESCO bid say the yellow sandstone edifices are an eclectic language that's unique to the city.
Many buildings are yet to be restored, waiting for renewed interest and investment.
But many built more than a century ago are still cared for and lived in.
Archways and lintels of exquisite detail, faded columns and decorative facades are a common sight in the city's old streets.
The 41st Session of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee is taking place in Krakow, Poland and runs until 12 July 2017.
Salt is one of 33 sites nominated for inclusion on the World Heritage List. A committee will decide which ones are awarded the prestigious status over the weekend.


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