Yemen

Yemen is one of the oldest centers of civilization in the Near East. The Romans called it Arabia Felix - Happy Arabia - because its mountains caught the monsoon rains that the rest of the peninsula missed, creating green terraced highlands in a region otherwise defined by desert. This rain made Yemen rich long before oil was discovered anywhere on the Arabian Peninsula. The ancient kingdoms of Saba (Sheba), Himyar, and Qataban grew wealthy on the incense trade, exporting frankincense and myrrh along caravan routes to Rome, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. The Queen of Sheba, who visited King Solomon according to the Bible and Quran, is claimed by Yemen as one of their own.

Yemen's architecture is unlike anything else on Earth. The old city of Sana'a, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a forest of mud-brick tower houses rising six to eight stories high, decorated with white geometric patterns that make them look like enormous gingerbread buildings. Shibam, in the Hadhramaut valley, is known as the Manhattan of the Desert - a cluster of 500 mud-brick towers built in the 16th century that constitute one of the earliest examples of vertical urban planning. And it was in Yemen that coffee was first cultivated and brewed as a drink. The word mocha comes from the Yemeni port of Al Mokha, from where coffee was exported to the world.

Yemen today carries the weight of conflict and humanitarian crisis, but its cultural heritage, architectural wonders, and the resilience of its people remain extraordinary. The Yemeni diaspora has carried the country's distinctive coffee culture, cuisine, and traditions across the globe.