"Sana & Aden of Yemen" a Yemen Travel Page by Bashir2005

San’a is the capital of Yemen, the city is situated at the western foot of Mount Nuqum, at an elevation of more than 7,200 feet (2,200 metres) above sea level, in the western part of the country. This beautiful city has for many centuries been a leading economic, political, and religious centre of the Yemen Highlands. The city's name means “fortified place.” In April 1993, I was flying with Al-Yemda airlines from Yeme to San’a already confirmed for me to return to Djibouti 3 days later to connect myself with an Air-France flight to Paris and then London. I was later afternoon when I we landed at San’a International airport, upon angle of elevation approaching to land from 24,000 + feet altitude, I was on of the most amazing landscaped in the world from my window seat. Columns farming land carpeted like a circles of staircases decorated with hilltop dwellings towering from the top of each other. This place is one the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, although an exact date for its establishment is unknown. According to Yemeni account we heard this city was originally founded by, Shem, one of the three sons of Noah. It occupies the site of the ancient pre-Islamic stronghold of Ghumdan, which may date to the 1st and 2nd century BC. San'a' was an Arabian centre for Christians and Jews before it was converted to Islam by 'Ali, fourth caliph and son-in-law of Muhammad, in 632. The city's history as a Muslim centre is one of sporadic rivalry between the heterodox Zaydi (Zaydiyah) imams (leaders) and rival dynasties; the Zaydi imamate, whose original capital was at Sa'dah in the north, lasted, with frequent interruptions, from the 9th century to 1962. Nominally under Ottoman sovereignty from the mid-16th century, San'a' was effectively controlled by the imams from the early 17th century to 1872; only then did the Ottomans succeed in capturing and holding the city. Civil strife between the Ottomans and the imams continued until 1911, when a treaty gave the latter almost total autonomy. San'a' became the national capital of independent Yemen after Ottoman defeat in World War I. Under the imam Ahmad (reigned 1948–62), the capital was moved south to Ta'izz, but San'a' again became the capital with the 1962 revolution and the proclamation of the Yemen Arab Republic (San'a'). The revolution ousted the Zaydi imamate and opened San'a' to political and cultural change, but it also sparked an eight-year civil war. In 1990 San'a' became the unified nation's capital when the Yemen Arab Republic (San'a'), or North Yemen, merged with the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (Aden), or South Yemen.
The evening I came to this city, I heard some sort of gunshots ringing and when I turned round to look at the situation, I could see men spraying bullets in the sky. I asked the driver of my taxi, he laughed and said this is just a family celebrating for a wedding. The following day, I was on my way to T’is where I spent the night and made the following day back to the capital to catch my flight back to Djibouti a day later. At 2pm on Thursday afternoon, when I came to airport I was told the flight was I was suppose to be taking had been taken a government delegation. When will I travel I asked, they said may be next week. This is a no win situation when it comes to customer service, therefore I begun to rush to the market down town to hire a car for me alone to take to Aden so I could catch a flight leaving for Djibouti from there at 20.30pm. I bought my ticket there, flew to Djibouti and joined the Air France flight I already booked to go to Paris. The people of Yemen are really nice, I am always lucky to experience no troubles in every country I visited. The food and the rich culture of Yemen as whole is something every visitor is excited to enjoy and feel.

Did you know, in ancient and medieval times, Yemen was the hub of the India’s trade with Palestine and East Africa, it is now a dead end, a cul de sac. Dubbed “Arabia Felix,” or “Fortunate Arabia,” by the Romans because of its rich agricultural land, plentiful fish stocks, and prosperous merchants, Yemen is now hardscrabble poor and the energies of its citizens are sapped by an addiction to qat, a mild narcotic leaf. In the past, Yemen could boast of women rulers, including the Queen of Sheba who married the Biblical King Solomon, but today its women are shrouded in black and generally confined to their homes. State-of-the art conveniences— mobile phones, the internet, medical advances, and transport— have imposed aspects of the 21st century on what is still a deeply conservative, Islamic society, creating curiosities and conflicts which are still being resolved. For instance, in the street outside my hotel a beggar woman enveloped in black proffered an ultrasound photo and demanded alms.