Yemen is bounded to its north by Saudi Arabia, and to the east by Oman. A narrow strip of land, called the Tihama, runs along the coast - to its west the country's highest mountains rise to well over 3000m (9840ft) then slope away to a high fertile plateau. In these high areas you can still find active volcanoes and hot springs. The sands of the great Arabian desert pour into the country from the north and stretch down to the southern coast. Two-thirds of Yemen is uninhabited.
Yemen's flora and fauna have been all but wiped out by the combination of over-cultivation, deforestation and desertification. Along the Tihama, vegetation runs from salt-loving mangroves to sand-dwelling grasses and shrubs. More rain falls in the foothills, and a few evergreen plants such as palms and acacias grow there. Tropical plants grow in the mountains' higher reaches, including commercial plantations of tropical fruits, while the highest slopes have been cultivated by coffee and qat growers. The plateaux have been turned over to sorghum, vegetable and spice growers. About the only creatures you're likely to see are birds migrating to and from east Africa.
Yemn is the least sandy place on the Arabian peninsula, thanks to the the twice-yearly monsoon winds which dump huge quantities of water on the country. The wet season runs from March to May and from July to August, while the highest temperatures are between June and August. The Tihama and the southern coast are hot and humid throughout the year but without much rain - daytime temperatures are around 32°C (60°F) in winter, 40°C (104°F) in summer. The highlands are much milder, and San'a averages daytime temperatures between 25°C (77°F) and 30°C (86°F) - at night it can get down to freezing. Most of the rain falls in the western mountains between July and August, while no rain ever falls in the desert.
People have been setting up shacks in the area known as Yemen for more than 3000 years. Ancient kingdoms earned their cash by selling scented tree resins known as myrrh and frankincense to the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Various states rose and fell along the trade routes; mightiest among them was Saba, which hung around for 14 centuries from 1000BC, and based its huge agricultural wealth around the famous dam of Ma'rib. When, in the 1st century AD, the Greeks and Romans discovered they could travel to and from India by boat, Yemen's ports made a killing, eclipsing the towns which had grown up along land trade routes. In 395 the Holy Roman Emperor Theodisius made Christianity the new state religion, effectively putting an end to the demand for frankincense and sending the Sabean kingdom into an irreversable decline. By 575 the Persians had waltzed in and were lords of all they surveyed.
In the 7th century the Persian governor of Yemen converted to Islam - like good subjects, the rest of the population soon followed, and by mid-century the Yemenis had knocked up a mosque or three. As the centre of Islamic power moved from the Arabian Peninsula to the Persian Gulf, Yemen was left more or less to its own devices, and a number of short-lived dynastic kingdoms sprang up. The Zaydi dynasty, a strict Islamic state founded in 897 in the north of the country, survived until Yemen's 1962 revolution. The Kathirids, who took power in the south in the 15th century, lasted until 1967.
Europe's feisty colonial powers first started grabbing at the peninsula in 1513, when Portugal set its sights on Aden. Egypt's Mamluks and Turkey's Ottomans were none to keen on this Iberian invasion, and after a four-year tussle Yemen fell to the Ottomans. In 1636 they Zaydi dynasty threw the Turks out, but in 1839 the British took Aden and made it a protectorate, extending their rule over most of the south by the 1950s. The Ottomans returned in 1849, taking over the north-west of the country. The local sheiks refused to buckle under this foreign authority, and after decades of insurrection the Ottomans, already destroyed by WWI, left Yemen to its new king, Imam Yahya (although Britain still held on to its protectorate states).
Although the Imam had control of the Tihama, Yemen's northern tribes were determined to have their own leader in power, and allied with the newly-formed state of Saudi Arabia. The 1934 Saudi-Yemeni war resulted in Saudi Arabia taking over Yemen's 'Asir region. Over the next 30 years Yemen remained isolated and underdeveloped - by the 1960s there were no paved roads in the country, almost no doctors and very low literacy levels.
Throughout the 50s, Yemen indulged in several border scuffles with the Aden protectorate, eventually turning to Cairo for help. As part of its pact with Egypt, Yemen joined the United Arab States, made up of Egypt and Syria. In 1962, when the Imam died, a group of army officers held a coup and founded the Yemen Arab Republic. Forces loyal to the Imam's son fled to the northern mountains, where they attained the support of Britain and Saudi Arabia and waged war on the Republicans, supported by Egypt and the USSR. In 1967 the Egyptians pulled out, but the Royalists were unable to defeat the Republicans. In 1970 the Imam-in-waiting was exiled to Britain and the Yemen Arab Republic was recognised by Saudi Arabia.
All the trouble up north got a few southern Yemenis stirred up enough to start a revolution of their own. The National Liberation Front - a Marxist, nationalist guerilla group - began a war against the British in 1963. In 1967 the British abandoned Aden and the People's Republic of South Yemen was born. Without British cash, and with the recent closure of the Suez Canal, the new Republic was in dire economic straits. In order to get economic support from Communist countries it nationalised much of the economy and declared itself a Marxist state, changing its name in 1969 to the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.
Of course, nothing spells trouble like two countries with the same name. Throughout the 70s, the two Yemens had border spats aplenty, as well as plenty of internal instability. In 1978 Lietenant Colonel Ali Abdullah Saleh became president of the YAR, introducing a period of non-democratic stability which lasted through the 80s, while in the PDRY things got so bad that they ended up fighting a civil war with themselves in 1986. When the Soviet Union collased at the end of the 80s, the PDRY lost its source of cash and gave up on the struggle, choosing to unite with the YAR. The Unified Republic of Yemen was declared on 22 May 1990, and in 1991 the people of Yemen ratified a constitution which provided for free elections, a multi-party system and recognition of human rights. But the problems couldn't be signed away - power struggles between the two factions led to full-scale civil war in 1994. Although the southerners tried to, once again, found their own state, the northerners were too powerful and the country was eventually reunified under the leadership of President Saleh. Since then Yemen has embarked on a program of modernisation, and is gradually opening up to the outside world.
The state religion of Yemen is Islam. The essence of Islam is the belief that there is only one God, and that it is the people's duty to believe in and serve Him in the manner that is laid out in the Quran. In Arabic, islam means submission and a muslim is one who submits to God's will. Yemeni Muslims are mainly divided betwen the Shafia Sunni sect and the Zaydi Shiia sect.
Yemeni architecture is unique. Buildings in the highlands are particularly striking - multistorey tower houses made from stone, brick or mud which wouldn't look out of place in a northern England housing development. Some of these houses are five or six stories high, with an extended family living in each house. The bottom floor is for animals, the next floor up is the diwan (a reception room for guests), the top floors are bedroooms and a kitchen, and the top floor is the mafraj - the room with a view, where the man of the house holds his qat parties.
Lunch is the main meal of the day in Yemen. Yemenis eat using their fingers or piece of bread - knives and forks are rare. Although you'll find kebabs (skewered, grilled meat) everywhere, the national dish is salta, a fiery stew of lamb or chicken with lentils, beans, chickpeas, coriander and spices served on rice. The mainstay of most Yemeni kitchens is shurba, a cross between a soup and a stew which can have a base of lentils, lamb or fenugreek. The everyday drink is shay, or tea, which is drunk from small glasses and may be served with mint. Coffee is harder to find, but worth it: it's flavoured with ginger or other spices, and served sweet. Because Yemen is a strict Islamic country, alcohol is illegal.
Money & Costs
Currency: Yemeni riyal
Relative costs:
- Budget meal: US$1-3
- Moderate restaurant meal: US$5-8
- Top-end restaurant meal: US$20 and upwards
- Budget room: US$4-8
- Moderate hotel: US$20-30
- Top-end hotel: US$100 and upwards
Yemen is one of the world's poorer countries, so wherever you're from, basics here are going to seem pretty cheap. You can get yourself a loaf of bread and a glass of tea for about US$0.10, or a simple meal for around $3. If you're keeping to basics - making some of your own meals, staying in the cheapest of hotels and keeping travel to a minimum - you could get by on around $12 a day. If you want to stay somewhere a bit more comfortable, eat out a few times a day and catch taxis, budget around $50 a day. Yemen also imports a lot of luxury goods, so if you're feeling really flash, you could spend about $300 a day to stay in a five-star hotel and hire a car.
If you want a decent rate, your best bet is to change your money in commercial banks or with private moneychangers in the souqs of large cities - airports and flash hotels offer dreadful rates. You'll have most luck changing money in San'a - in smaller towns you might not be able to change money at all. US dollars and major European currencies (both in cash) are the most widely accepted forms of lucre. Travellers cheques may be difficult to change, and credit cards are almost useless.
Tipping is unknown in Yemen, as a service charge is included in restaurant and hotel bills. Bargaining isn't a staple of Yemeni commerce, but you should negotiate with taxi drivers before you get in.
If you believe the Yemenis, San'a is one of the first sites of human settlement, founded by Noah's son, Shem. Other sources suggest the city has been around since at least the 2nd century AD, and up until 1962 the city still nestled within its ancient walls, surrounded by green fields. These days, San'a is a sprawling city of over a million people, but the walls still stand - many houses in the Old City are over 400 years old, and the area within the walls is the largest preserved medina in the Arab world. Everywhere you go you'll see facades ornamented with elaborate friezes, and beautiful takhrim windows with their delicate fretworking and coloured panes. Mosque minarets rise above the tower houses, and the city is sprinkled with bathhouses, some dating from the Ottoman occupation of Yemen.
The central market, Souq al-Milh, is a collection of around 40 small souqs, each specialising in one product - you'll find vegetables, spices, qat, raisins, pottery, clothes, woodwork, copper and silver. In the Jambiya Souq you can watch craftsmen making complex ceremonial weapons. If you're a Muslim, you should visit Al-Jami' al-Kabir, the great mosque on the western side of Souq al-Milh. The mosque, which is closed to non-Muslims, was built around 630AD, when Mohammed was still alive.
The city's National Museum lives in the House of Good Luck, a former royal palace built in the 1930s. Its five floors have displays on the ancient kingdoms of Yemen (including Saba), the country's Islamic history and its modern folk culture. The Museum for Arts & Crafts, also in an old palace, specialises in artefacts from everyday Yemeni life, while the surprisingly good Military Museum has the low-down on the country's many wars.
You'll have no trouble finding a cheap hotel in San'a, but you may have trouble finding one you want to stay in. If you're prepared to pay a bit, you can stay in one of the city's converted tower houses. There are plenty of small restaurants scattered around the city, with the best conglomeration around Bab al-Yaman.
Once the capital of the ancient kingdom of Saba, Ma'rib is the most stunning archaeological site in Yemen. In the 8th century BC a 16m (52ft) high dam was built here, and for over 1000 years the lake it created irrigated fields which sustained around 50,000 people. In the 2nd century AD the empire fell, and over the next few hundred years the dam collapsed and Ma'rib became an inconsequential village. When oil was discoverd here in 1986 the town was revitalised, and it's now a bustling place.
Time has not been particularly charitable to the ruins of Ma'rib, but there's still plenty to see. Although most of the old village has been destroyed, you can still see some impressive small-windowed mud buildings, and occasionally you'll find one with ancient Sabaean inscriptions in its stone cellar. Nearby are the remnants of some remarkable temples, including the Temple of Bilqis, built around 400BC. There's not a lot left, but you can still see the remnants of the Great Dam of Ma'rib, and if you walk a few miles upstream you'll reach the imaginatively-titled New Dam of Ma'rib, more than twice as high as the old one.
Ma'rib is about 100km (60mi) east of San'a - buses travel there twice a day from the capital. There are very few places to stay or eat in Ma'rib.
Yemenis love to build their houses in difficult places, and Shihara is one of the finest examples of the art. This fortress village squats on top of a 2600m (8528ft) mountain, almost inaccessible from below. It has been a base for resistance to the Ottomans during the 16th and 17th centuries, and was also the Royalist headquarters during the 1960s civil war.
Although its location is stunning, Shihara's architecture is simple. The town's stone houses rise up to five storeys, but are decorated only with dented friezes and white plastering - they are good examples of a very traditional, archaic form of Yemeni mountain architecture.
The village is actually in two parts, each taking up a mountain peak of its own. A deep gorge separates them, spanned by a stone bridge built in the 17th century, a remarkable feat of engineering. There are very few places to stay in Shihara, and wherever you stay you will most likely be overcharged - it might be worth making the trib to nearby Huth. Most visitors take an organised tour from San'a to Shihara (mainly because this used to be the only way you could get there), but if you choose to make the 163km (101mi) journey by yourself you will need your own car - be prepared to spend the whole day getting there.
Hadhramawt is the biggest wadi (seasonal river) in the Arabian Peninsula - it runs for 160km (99mi) through stony desert, along a valley about 300m (980ft) deep. This is one of the most fertile areas of Yemen, brilliantly green against the starkness of the desert, and the area has been settled since at least the 3rd century AD. The city of Shibam, known as the Manhattan of the desert, is one of the highlights of the valley. Its 500 traditional-style skyscrapers are crammed into half a sqare km, and rise abrubtly from the flat plane of the desert, without a sprawling suburb in sight. Although the city has been around for about 1800 years, most of the houses in the walled city date from the 16th century. Many of them feature finely engraved wooden doors with fancy wooden locks; the windows are latticed with elaborately carved wooden screens.
Say'un, the largest town in the valley, has some of Yemen's most beautiful mosques. The Sultan's Palace here is perhaps the most pompous in southern Yemen, a towering white colossus with light blue window decorations built in the 1930s. The palace holds a museum with archaeological artefacts, folklore displays and knick knacks belonging to former sultans. The souvenir shop here is also pretty nifty.
Although Say'un might top the mosque stakes as far as quality goes, Tarim is definitely winning on quantity. This town, overshadowed by rock cliffs on one side and surrounded by palm groves on the other, is an important centre of Sunni Islamic teaching, and (officially, at least) is home to 365 mosques. The most famous of these is the al-Muhdar, named after an important religious teacher. Its minaret is 50m (164ft) high, solid, square and built of mud brick - it's the highest minaret in southern Arabia and the symbol of the town. If you prefer understatement to ostentation, visit the Al-Ahqaf Library, with its gorgeous collection of antique manuscripts and beautiful Arabic calligraphy.
The wadi is in the eastern part of Yemen, about 800km (500mi) east of San'a. Say'un, in the centre of the valley, has an airport with flights from San'a and Aden. If you travel by bus or taxi from San'a, expect the trip to take two to three days.
The sprawling town of Rada' is best known for its exceptional mosque. One of the most important towns in the southern province of Al-Baydha, Rada' lies on a plain, backed by a fortified rocky hill. The town is mainly built of mud, but the old town is partly surrounded by a stone wall.
The Al-Amiriya Mosque stands in the centre of the old town. It has a uniquely Yemeni design, and was built about 500 years ago by a Tahirid sultan. The mosque is no longer in use, which means you can wander through the building, which is currently being restored. The building's grooved cupolas are particularly beautiful.
Rada's mud houses are a striking contrast to the stone buildings elsewhere in the country. The buildings here are made of bricks, but are given a smooth, fresh coating of grey mud every year. The houses also have beautiful windows, unique to the town, with triple-arched fanlights and huge alabaster panes. Just north of Rada' you'll find Yemen's youngest volcano, al-Lisi, which still spews steam now and then.
Rad'a is about 180km (112mi) south of San'a, with buses running regularly between the two towns. There are plenty of places to stay and eat in Rad'a.
If you want to spend your riyals at a traditional weekly market, the biggest and best is the Friday market at beit al-Faqih. The market first kicked off in the 1700s, when Beit al-Faqih was a coffee trading post. Weekly markets are common as dirt throughout northern Yemen, with every little town having its own. Traditionally, the markets sell fruit, vegetables, meat and handcrafts, although these days you can also get imported stuff.
Beit al-Faqih's market is huge - there's over 1000 traders and a different area for each type of produce, with some areas covered and others open-air. As well as coffee, you'll find Yemeni pottery, colourful Tihami clothes and baskets, camels, donkeys, chickens and fresh fruit, vegetables and grains.
Beit al-Faqih is about 150km (90mi) south-west of San'a, and there are buses via al-Hudayda, or you can get a taxi. There's not much to do there apart from the weekly market, so there's not much point staying overnight.
Although Yemenis don't really get into water sports, the expat population has found some pretty good diving spots. The Yemeni seas are rich in sealife, and popular with people who either want to gawk or eat. You won't be able to rent equipment, so bring your own.
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