Yemen

The Old City of Sana'a, inscribed by UNESCO in 1986, is one of the most distinctive Old Cities in the Arab world. The multi-storey tower-houses of basalt, fired brick and white gypsum reach seven and eight floors and are decorated with white-stucco geometric ornament around the windows, in a building tradition that has continued unbroken for over a thousand years; some scholars describe these as the world's earliest skyscrapers. The Great Mosque (built within the lifetime of the Prophet, 7th century CE) is one of the oldest mosques in the world. The Souk al-Milh (salt market) anchors the Old City; the bab al-Yemen city gate, the al-Madrasa Mu'tabariyya and the historic baths complete the core.

The Old Walled City of Shibam (UNESCO 1982), in the Wadi Hadhramaut about 480 km east of Sana'a, is one of the most remarkable urban survivals on earth — a fortified town of around 500 mud-brick tower-houses, most of them 5 to 11 storeys high and dating from the 16th century. Often described as the world's first “vertical city” and the original “Manhattan of the Desert”, Shibam is a textbook example of vernacular high-rise construction in earthen materials. The neighbouring towns of Sayyun (once the seat of the Kathiri sultanate) and Tarim (once one of the most important centres of Sufi scholarship in the Indian Ocean world) complete the Hadhramaut circuit.

The Historic Town of Zabid (UNESCO 1993), in the Tihama coastal plain, was the 13th-century capital of the Rasulid dynasty and the seat of one of the great medieval Islamic universities — the Asha'ir Mosque was a major centre of Quranic study and Islamic jurisprudence in the medieval Indian Ocean world. Zabid sits within the Tihama, the hot coastal plain along the Red Sea, where the vernacular architecture of round palm-thatch houses (Africa-leaning) and the daily life of the Tihami people give the coast a visual register quite distinct from the highland Yemen of Sana'a and the Hadhramaut.

The Socotra Archipelago, 350 km off the southern coast in the Arabian Sea, was inscribed by UNESCO as a Natural Heritage site in 2008 — one of the most biodiverse and visually distinct places on earth. Over 700 endemic species are recorded, including the iconic dragon's blood tree (Dracaena cinnabari) whose umbrella-shaped silhouette and red sap have made the island internationally famous; the Bottle Tree (Adenium socotranum); the Frankincense Tree; and over 200 species of bird and reptile found nowhere else on earth. The archipelago has historically operated under a different practical access regime than mainland Yemen, with charter flights from the United Arab Emirates and a small but specialised tourist trade focused on hiking, photography and snorkelling.

Beyond the UNESCO circuit, Yemen offers some of the most important pre-Islamic and early Islamic archaeological landscapes in Arabia. Marib, in the eastern desert, was the capital of the kingdom of Saba (the biblical Sheba); the Great Marib Dam (8th century BCE to 6th century CE) was the largest in the ancient world, and the Awam Temple of the Sabaean moon-god is one of the most important pre-Islamic religious sites in Arabia. The Haraz Mountains south-west of Sana'a preserve the historic coffee terraces — Yemen is the world's coffee homeland, and the port of Mocha gave its name to the international coffee trade from the 15th century onward. The frankincense routes of the Hadhramaut linked southern Arabia to the Mediterranean for over a millennium.

Yemeni cuisine is one of the most distinctive of the Arabian Peninsula: salta (the spicy lamb stew that is the national dish, served bubbling in a hot stone pot with a topping of whipped fenugreek), mandi (the slow-roasted lamb on rice that has spread from Yemen across the entire Gulf), bint al-sahn (the layered honey bread eaten with nigella seeds), fattah, the fenugreek-based shafut, the saltah-stew and the qishr coffee-husk drink (made from the dried husks of coffee beans rather than the bean itself, traditional to Yemen). Yemen is the world's coffee homeland, and the historic port of Mocha gave its name to the international coffee trade. Yemeni hospitality (the cultural value of the unannounced guest, the long mafraj qat-and-coffee gathering, the tea and coffee of welcome) remains the strongest first impression for almost every international visitor.