Ancient Ethiopian Palace May Have Supported Skyscraper-Scale Height

A joint German-Ethiopian research team examined the Grat Be’al Gibri palace at Yeha, dated to roughly 800 B.C. and spanning about 60 m × 60 m (over 196 ft) on a raised podium roughly 20 ft high. Using three-dimensional finite-element modeling of two wall sections, researchers determined that the timber-reinforced clay-mortar walls could theoretically bear the load of 16–19 stories. The analysis does not claim the structure actually rose that high, but it shows the building system was capable of supporting a skyscraper-scale load.

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Arab historians and South-Arabian rock art have long described multi-story towers in the Horn of Africa, yet no prior engineering study quantified those claims. Excavations beginning in 1906 and intensified in the 1970s uncovered a monumental gateway with six sandstone pillars about 32 ft tall and a wide staircase, suggesting a multi-level complex. The recent study, published in *Heritage* in July, provides the first quantitative assessment of the palace’s structural capacity.

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The walls combined stone, clay mortar, and horizontally installed timber beams made from African olive and *Cordia africana*. Beam dimensions ranged from 8–11 in in length and about 9 in in width, intersecting within the wall and likely fastened with wooden nails. This horizontal timber grid, unique to Yeha, gave the walls a “remarkable load-bearing capacity,” according to the engineers. Simulations that incorporated uncertainty in material properties consistently yielded a maximum safe load equivalent to a 16- to 19-story building.

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• Davide Tanasi, professor of classical archaeology at the University of South Florida, emphasized that the 19-floor figure reflects a structural load factor, not an actual height.

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• Kwasi Konadu, former MacArthur Chair of Africana and Latin American Studies at Colgate University, argued the findings challenge the view that Arabia alone supplied such building technology, highlighting long-standing local traditions.

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• Martin Drieschner, chair of structural analysis and dynamics at BTU and lead researcher, described the work as proof that modern numerical simulation can illuminate ancient engineering.

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• “But Yeha shows that equally sophisticated traditions existed in the Ethio-Sabaean world, where African and South Arabian building traditions interacted,” — Davide Tanasi, professor

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