Yemen
Arabia Felix, a land of high mountains and deep crisis
Yemen anchors the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, a land the ancient Romans called Arabia Felix, fortunate Arabia, for the green highlands and incense trade that set it apart from the surrounding deserts. Skyscraper towns of mud brick rise in stone valleys, and terraced mountains climb above the Red Sea. Yet years of civil war, blockade, and economic collapse have plunged the country into one of the world's gravest humanitarian crises, overshadowing its deep heritage.
Yemen rises from coastal plains along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to a high interior of mountains and plateaus, culminating in Jabal an Nabi Shuʿayb, the highest point on the Arabian Peninsula, before descending to the eastern desert and the Empty Quarter. The remote island of Socotra holds unique flora. The climate ranges from torrid coast to temperate highland. Once modestly oil-dependent, the economy has been devastated by war, with widespread hunger and ruined infrastructure.
The kingdoms of Saba and the legendary Queen of Sheba flourished here on the incense routes, and Yemen was among the first regions to embrace Islam. Long divided between north and south, the two unified in 1990. A 2011 uprising and the subsequent war between the Houthi movement and a Saudi-led coalition fractured the state and triggered famine conditions. Sanaa, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities, with its iconic tower houses, is the historic capital.