Imam Yahya's palace, perched on its rock above the small village of Suq al-Wadi, is one of the main attractions in the area around Sana'a. Yayha was a despotic leader who's long campaign of guerilla action made life miserable for the occupying Ottoman Turk armies and who became the first King of post-Ottoman Yemen in 1923. He had this palace built as a summer residence in th 1930's although there are believed to have been much earlier settlements on the same site.