The village "lies at 2600 metres and overlooks mountainous bulging swells to the south and shimmering hot plains to the north.

The area is noted for its limestone arch footbridge, constructed in the 17th century by a local lord to connect two villages across a deep gorge.

[5] The 10th-century author al-Hamdani mentions Shaharah as a mountain and fortress, and it appears in historical sources throughout the Middle Ages and early modern period.

[3] The Ottomans made multiple attempts to capture Shaharah, but they only succeeded once - in 1587 (995 AH) under the governor Mustafa Asim Pasha.

[5] The poet Zaynab bint Muhammad al-Shahariyyah, who died in 1702 (1114 AH), was from Shaharah; her poetry was never compiled into a diwan but has "a respectable place in Yemeni literature".