YEMEN  >  MIDDLE EAST  >  INDEX


Governorates in Yemen : Abyan, Aden, Al Bayda, Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf, Al Mahrah, Al Mahwit, Ataq, Dhamar, Hadhramaut, Hajjah, Ibb, Lahij, Ma'rib, Sa'dah, San'a', and Ta'izz

Capital City of Yemen: Sanaa / Sana'a


car hire, hotels, travel agencies, travel guides, transportation / how to get there

links


Car Rental Yemen

 Budget Rent A Car

Hotels in Yemen

 All-hotels.com 
 Expedia.com

More Hotels? See the page Hotels

Tour Operators / ravel Agents



 AYTTA - Association of Yemen Tourism and Travel Agencies

Travel Guides Yemen / Related Books

 Gulf States: Kuwait, Bahrain, Quatar, United Arab Emirates, Omen, Yemen 
Around the Arabian Gulf lie hot, hazy lands of modern myth and ancient legend, where skyscrapers sparkle on the edge of the desert, where mud-brick fortresses crumble into the sand. Beyond the hasty, square-cut cities of glass and concrete, labyrinthine villages, palm-shaded oases and lazy beaches await discovery. This Way the Gulf States brushes aside the veil to reveal the culture, the history and mysteries of these intriguing countries.
Paperback 124 pages (January 1997); Publisher: JPM Publications SA; Language: English; ISBN: 2884520996.
 The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadramaut
By Tim Mackintosh-Smith (Foreword), Freya Stark
In 1934 Freya Stark travelled alone to the Hadhramaut in what is now Yemen. Then, it was a little-known country torn by tribal warfare, but it had once been the centre of the hugely profitable incense trade. Freya's aim was to trace the old incense road to the coast. An Arabic speaker, she was able to travel with tribesmen, accept hospitality from sultans and Arab chiefs, and even study harem life. Here, she gives us her first-hand experience of an ancient world that has all but gone. Freya Stark was one of the greatest women travellers of the 20th century, and also one of the finest travel writers. She inspired a whole generation who followed her. In "The Southern Gates of Arabia", she combines a sense of adventure with a unique eye for history and landscape.
Paperback 288 pages (June 5, 2003); Publisher: John Murray; Language: English; ISBN: 0719563380
 Cool for Qat: A Yemeni Journey 1930-2004 - Peter Mortimer
When author Peter Mortimer was commissioned to write a play about the little-known 'Arab Riot' between Yemeni and British seamen at the Mill Dam, South Shields, in 1930, he decided to take the long trip to Yemen itself in search of inspiration. Undeterred by post-11 September government warnings that Westerners should not visit this 'highly dangerous' country, Mortimer set off and found an extraordinary and surprisingly anglophile country. Cool for Qat documents this remarkable journey, during which Mortimer pieces together how the riots of 1930 arose and considers their relevance to the Western attitude towards Muslims today. He visits the ex-British protectorate of Aden - through which many of the seamen passed en route to Britain - and travels to the cities of Sana'a, the Yemeni capital, and Tai'iz, whose mountainous environs many of the young Yemeni seamen left all those years ago to seek a new life in the UK. While undertaking a hazardous journey through these mountains, Mortimer meets men who worked as seamen in South Shields some 50 years ago and reveals how he received a marriage proposal from another man, was feted by a mountain village sheik, who made him a present of his ceremonial sword, and how he immersed himself in the national custom of chewing the narcotic qat leaf. Back in the UK, Mortimer's investigations into the 1930 riot revealed a society with many striking similarities to current times. Then, as now, Muslim immigrants were treated as scapegoats for all manner of ills, tabloid newspapers drummed up prejudice and hatred and the powers-that -be often used fear and racial mistrust to disguise their own economic failings. And, in South Shields itself, he found many of the present Arab population worried about the negative effect that his play might have. Cool for Qat controversially questions just how 'civilised' the Western world - and Britain in particular - is in comparison to Yemen. It is a touching, thought-provoking and at times humorous document of one man's travels through a country about which little is known by Western civilisation.
Paperback 240 pages (August 4, 2005); Publisher: Mainstream Publishing; Language: English; ISBN: 1840189460

Transport / How do I travel to Yemen

 Aden International Airport

 Emirates US  -  Flight tickets Sanaa

 Yemenia Yemen Airways

 Airline Tickets / Bargain Flights

 Online Map of Yemen [ Uni Texas - Perry-Castañeda Library - Map Collection ]


Links 

 Travel Insurance  -  online travel and holiday insurance

 Yemen Tourism

 Government of Yemen  -  main tourist regions in Yemen

 Sanaa  -  Capital City Yemen

 North Yemen  -  before unification
 South Yemen / Aden  -  before unification

 Abyan
 Aden
 Al Bayda
 Al Hudaydah
 Al Jawf
 Al Mahrah
 Al Mahwit
 Ataq
 Dhamar
 Hadhramaut
 Hajjah
 Ibb
 Lahij
 Ma'rib
 Sa'dah
 San'a'
 Ta'izz

 Aden - stad
 Hajjarain
 Shibam [ Manhatten of the Desert ]

 Arabia Felix / trade route
The Greeks and Romans called the southern part of the peninsula 'Arabia Felix', glorified by the fabulous wealth supposedly enjoyed by its inhabitants. Since the domestication of the camel (around 1500 B.C.) large Sabaean caravans moved north along the edge of the desert, covering in 60 - 70 days the distance from Qana on the Indian ocean to Ghaza on the Mediterranean sea. The trade route, which was protected by the kingdoms along the way, became famous as the "Gold and Incense Road".
Incense
 Incense was an item of high prestige, burnt in large quantities in the temples of the Mediterranean civilizations. It grows naturally only in the lower Hadhramaut. See Arabia Felix.
 Kingdom of Saba
The ancient South Arabian Kingdoms which started out as theocracies, all developed in the mouths of large wadis between the mountains and the great desert . The kingdom of Saba with its capital at Marib was the most powerfull, at times dominating all of South Arabia.
 Marib Dam
 Qat
 Queen of Sheba
The most prominent and celebrated figure of Yemen's ancient history is the legendary Queen of Sheba [ named Bilqis in the Arabic tradition ], who visited King Solomon during the 10th century B.C. bringing with her a large retinue and an abundance of gold and spices. Challenging Solomon with riddles, she eventually had to capitulate to his wisdom and accept his God. This exotic story has sparked the imagination of countless generations and has found entry into three Holy Books: the Bible the Ethiopian Kebra Nagast and the Holy Koran.
 Jimbaya [ curved dagger ]

Cuisine  -  Yemen Cooking

 Culinair  -  Arab recipes

History of Yemen

Independence: 22 May 1990

Republic of Yemen was established on 22 May 1990 with the merger of the Yemen Arab Republic {Yemen (Sanaa) or North Yemen} and the Marxist-dominated People's Democratic Republic of Yemen {Yemen (Aden) or South Yemen}; previously North Yemen had become independent on NA November 1918 (from the Ottoman Empire) and South Yemen had become independent on 30 November 1967 (from the UK)

 Yemen's History - Wikipedia
Ancient history [ Persian period ], Medieval history, Modern History [ Former North Yemen, Former South Yemen, Republic of Yemen ]

 A History of Modern Yemen  -  Paul Dresch
To the outside world, Yemen is famous for its beautiful landscapes and architecture. However, as Paul Dresch demonstrates, Yemen's modern history is unique and deserves to be better understood. While the borders of most Middle East states were defined by colonial powers after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, a single Yemeni state was not formed until 1990. In fact, much of Yemen's twentieth-century history was taken up constructing such a state, forged after years of civil war between the North and the South. The story is a complex one, but the author handles it masterfully, employing his skills as an anthropologist to re -enact the experiences of those involved through personal encounters and a first-hand knowledge of the region. The narrative is fast-moving and interactive, introducing the non-expert painlessly and pleasurably to a little-known slice of Arab history. Conversely, the expert will find much that is new on every page.
Paperback 304 pages (December 7, 2000); Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Language: English; ISBN: 052179482X

Music, Culture & Entertainment

 Music_of_Yemen [ Wikipedia ]

 Musical Anthology of Arabian Peninsula, Vol. 3 
To hear a song sample, click on the song titles.
Audio CD (December 12, 1995); Label: Gallo; ASIN: B000004A2E

Portal site / Search Engines / Directories

 Yemennet
 Yemenweb

 al-bab.com  -  an open door to the arab world
Country guides, newspapers, history, human rights, economy, arts etc.
 Arabbye.com  -  Search Engine For The Arab World


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