35 Facts About Yemen

Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in Western Asia on the Arabian Peninsula's southern tip. It shares maritime borders with Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia, as well as Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast.

Yemen has ancient roots that run through Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

Yemen was home to a series of powerful and wealthy city-states and empires for over 2,000 years, beginning around 1200 BC. Their prosperity was largely due to the production of frankincense and myrrh, two of the ancient world's most valuable commodities.

Yemen's capital, Sana'a, is said to have been founded by Shem, one of Noah's three sons from the flood story in the Old Testament book of the Bible.

Sana'a's UNESCO-listed Old City has been inhabited for more than 2,500 years and was a major Islamic centre during the 7th and 8th centuries. The site contains 103 mosques, 14 hammams, and over 6,000 houses, all of which were constructed before the 11th century.

Yemen was once divided into north and south, with the Ottoman Empire ruling the north and the British ruling the south.

The Ottoman Empire was dissolved in 1918, and North Yemen gained independence.

Britain withdrew from South Yemen in 1967, and the country became the People's Republic of Yemen. A communist coup in 1969 renamed Yemen's south the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.

South Yemen's People's Republic was the Arab world's first and only Marxist state.

Decades of instability and conflict followed, with regular clashes between the two Yemens, as well as an eight-year civil war in North Yemen from 1962 to 1970.

The two Yemens merged in 1990 to form the Republic of Yemen, with Ali Abdallah Saleh as president.

Yemen has been plagued by uprisings, civil war, protests, terrorism, and separatist movements since its unification in 1990.

Yemen claims the Queen of Sheba, the legendary ancient ruler of Saba, which is said to be located in modern-day Yemen.

Yemenis are famous for chewing khat, a mild amphetamine-like drug that has been used for thousands of years. It is estimated that up to 90% of adult men and possibly 50% of adult women chew khat several times per day.

Shibam, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is known as "the Manhattan of the desert" due to its impressive tower-like structures and rectangular grid plan of streets and squares.

Yemen's national symbol is the golden eagle.

One of the more interesting Yemen facts is that it is the birthplace of mocha coffee. Mocha, the port city, was once a bustling coffee market and is regarded as the birthplace of the coffee trade.

Yemen was known in Latin as Arabia Felix, which means "Happy, or Flourishing, Arabia" because of its fertile land.

Yemen was the first Arabian Peninsula country to grant women the right to vote.

Yemen's flag is red, white, and black with horizontal stripes. Black is said to represent the dark days of the past, white the bright future, and red the blood of the struggle for independence and unity.

The Arabian Desert, which covers much of Yemen, is Asia's largest desert and the world's second largest at 2,300,000 square kilometres (900,000 square miles). Only Africa's Sahara Desert is larger.

The Rub al-Khali, or "Empty Quarter," is the world's largest uninterrupted sand desert, located partly within Yemen.

Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East and the Arab World in terms of GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity (PPP).

Yemen is the only country in the Arabian Peninsula with a purely republican government (no monarchy as head of state).

The Dar al-Hajar in Yemen is a former royal palace carved out of a single rock column. The 1920s-era palace is now a museum and tourist attraction.

Yemen also contains more than 200 islands, the largest of which is Socotra.

The island is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Socotra Archipelago. The site has a diverse biodiversity, with 37% of its 825 plant species, 90% of its reptile species, and 95% of its land snail species found nowhere else on the planet.

The island is home to an unusual tree known as the dragon's blood tree. According to local legend, the trees grew from the blood of two brothers fighting to the death, or from the blood of a dragon injured while fighting an elephant.

The Socotra Archipelago is also home to 192 bird species, 253 reef-building coral species, 730 coastal fish species, and 300 crab, lobster, and shrimp species.

According to Lonely Planet, Socotra is the only safe place to visit in Yemen due to the presence of UAE and Saudi Arabian troops. The Southern Transitional Council, however, took control of the island in June 2020.

According to the Global Hunger Index's 2020 report, Yemen is the world's second-hungriest country, with alarming levels of hunger.

Yemen is one of 17 countries considered completely unsafe for tourists to visit, according to the UK Foreign Office.

According to the 2020 International SOS Travel Risk Map, Yemen is one of the top ten most dangerous countries in the world. It has been classified as a 'extreme travel security risk'.

Similarly, Yemen is the world's fifth-least peaceful country, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace's 2020 Global Peace Index (GPI).

Yemen is the worst country in the world for gender equality, as measured by the disparities between men and women in health, education, the economy, and politics.