Yemen

Anja Djokic

Mr. Sweeney

Humanities 8c

Where Is Yemen?

Yemen is located in the Asia in the Middle East on

the far south of the Arabian Peninsula.

It is surrounded by The

Indian Ocean (Arabian sea

and the Gulf of Aden) and

the Red Sea.

Yemen

It borders Saudi Arabia

and Oman on the land

and Eritrea, Djibouti

and Somalia over the

seas.

Geographic Features

•Islands Hanish Islands, Kamaran and Perim in the Red

sea, and Socotra in the Arabian sea belong to Yemen.

•There are four major geographic divisions in Yemen:

coastal plains in the west, the western highlands, the

eastern highlands, and the Rub al Khali desert in the east.

•The coastline of Yemen is 1,906km long.

• There are sand and dust storms in the summer.

•lowest point: Arabian Sea 0 m

•highest point: Jabal an Nabi

Shu'ayb 3,760 m

Climate in Yemen

• Climate is desert hot and dry, but very cold in the night. It is

hot and humid on the west coastal line. There are seasonal

monsoons that effect the climate in the mountains on the

west.

Environment of Yemen

Wildlife in Yemen is very rich, but there are some endangered spices. There are 13 birds, such as northern bald ibis, and 5 mammal spices endangered. Some of them are the South Arabian leopard, Green sea turtle and Hawksbill Queen of Saba’s gazelle and the Sa‘udi Gazelle exist only kept in captivity.

Plants in Yemen can be divided in three geographical categories: the coastal plain (with dry-climate plants (dates, bananas, cotton, euphorbia, species etc.)), the middle highlands (with melons, nuts, grapes, grains, euphorbia, eucalyptus, sycamore, figs etc.) and the mountainous interior (with coffee, woody shrubs and trees).

Most of the fauna and flora is however in the sea. When it comes to fish the most common ones are tuna, shark, sardines, lobster, and squid.

There is a Water and Environment Center because there are a lot of crisis with water in Yemen. Today only six percent of Yemen is forested.

History of Yemen Islam in

Yemen Zaydi Ottomans

The

British

Kingdom

of Yemen

Southern

Yemen

Modern

Yemen Civil War

628-630

A.D.

the 9th

century 1538. 1839. 1918. 1967.

22nd May

1990 1994.

When the

Persian

Governor of

Yemen

Badhan

converted

to Islam so

did many

sheikhs and

their tribes.

A sect from

Iran called

Zaydi was

introduced

to Yemen.

These

people

worshiped

Zayd ibn’Ali

as the

direct heir

of The

Prophet

Muhammad

.

Turks

Occupied

Yemen and

Yemen

stayed

under Turks

for almost

four

centuries

(380 years).

British took

over Aden

and the

Ottoman

Empire.

Imam

Yahya

made the

Kingdom

of Yemen

after

defeating

the Turks.

Later his

grandson

was

overthrow

n by

revolutioni

sts who

made the

Yemen

Arab

republic.

In this year

the

People’s

Democratic

Republic

of Yemen

was made

by Aden

gaining

independen

ce from the

British.

On this day

the

Southern

(People’s

Democratic

republic)

and

Northern

(Yemen's

Arab

Republic)

Yemen

united into

the

Republic of

Yemen.

Differences

in power

and other

thing

caused the

civil war.

North won

and made

new plans

for the

government

such as

pledges to

protect

political

democracy.

Customs And Traditions

Jambiyah is a traditional weapon (a blade) that both males and females perform dances with. Yemenis dance in weddings, and other similar gatherings but males and females dance separately.

Yemenis are the most famous for craftsmanship, even thou today there aren't many artists doing this.

The biggest tradition in Yemen that comes from ancient times is telling poems and proverbs. These proverbs and poems are carried orally throughout the centuries. These proverbs and poems mostly talk about timeless and priceless things such as love, death, happiness, but they also talk about biographies, history and historical events and traditions.

-Jambiyah

Queen of Saba

The story of the Queen of Saba (or Sheba in Hebrew) is very famous in

Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Ethiopian culture. The legend is that she was

the queen of the Kingdom of Sheba, located somewhere between Ethiopia

and Yemen and that she lived sometime in 10th century BC.

The Queen of Saba had many names and there are lots

of different stories about her and pictures of her. Here

is the Ethiopian version:

King Solomon gave Queen of Saba spicy food to eat so

that she would spend the night in the castle. King

Solomon made a promise he will not take the Queen by

force if she promises not to steal anything. In the middle

of the night she woke up and drank a cup of water. King

Solomon said that she broke her promise since water is

very precious in the desert. They spend the night

together and Queen of Saba later gave birth to Menelik

l, first Ethiopian Emperor.

This story is a part of Yemen’s tradition. Some even write it in the articles about Yemen’s

history. The main thing is that The Kingdom of Sheba was near the Yemen we know

today and Yemenis find that important.

Government of Yemen

Full name: The Republic Of Yemen.

The type of government in Yemen is Parliamentary republic.

Capital is: Sana’a, and time zone is GMT+3.

Independence day: May 22th

The President is Ali Abdallah Salih, since the independence

day. He was the president of the Northern Yemen.

In Yemen the president is elected by the direct popular vote

and he stays on the position for 7 years. All the ministers

and the vice president are appointed by the president.

The Legal system is based on Islamic and Turkish law, English

common law, and local tribal customary law.

The Justice System

The North has two justice systems, the religious one with the

Shari’ah (Islamic law) which depends which sect you are in

Zaydi or Shafi’l, and the tribal law called ‘urf used mostly by

tribes for fixing their own problems.

In the South it is the Marxist government even though there

is a history of British common law. In the rural areas they still

respect the Shari’ah and the tribal law.

In the southern Yemen, Yemen Socialistic Party (YSR) is the

only legal political party while in Northern Yemen there are

lots.

The most important things in Yemen happened after 1980s.

That was when both Yemens decided to change and make

their people more active in politics, social life etc. More

radical changes were discussed in the 1992 and 1993.

The Flag Very similar to flags of

Syria, Iraq and Egypt.

Black is the

symbol of the

dark past.

Red is the symbol of blood spilled in

martyr and fights for unity.

White represents the

bright future.

This flag represents the flags of Northern and Southern Yemen.

Money in Yemen

Currency in Yemen is Yemeni Riyal (YER). 1 YER = 100 fils.

1 Euro is 281.32 YER and 1 Dollar is 198.63 YER

Cash is more accepted than cards. American Express and

Diners Club are sure to be accepted. There are very few

ATMs.

There are two major banks in Yemen:

-The Yemen Bank for Reconstruction and Development

(founded in 1962.)

-The Central Bank of Yemen (founded in 1971.)

10 YER from 1973. 20 YER

Economy of Yemen

Yemen is one of the worlds poorest countries even though they developed a lot on the past twenty years.

About 16% of Yemen has fertile land and agriculture is very developed there.

Until the 1980s Yemen’s industry wasn’t very developed. Today they export cement, plastics, paints, textiles, furniture, and tobacco products.

They also make traditional handcrafts such as jewellery, leather, carpets, glass, swords and such. Today they make these things n commercial purposes and for tourism.

Tourism in Yemen

On the picture on the left is Sana’a the

capital of Yemen. They say it is the oldest

city, probably founded by Sham - son of

Noah. In 1984 it was declared "World

Heritage of Mankind“. The biggest tourist

attraction are the souk, old city and the

National Museum. These are the best hotels

in Sana’a: Sheraton, Taj sheba, Hilton, Arabia

Felix, Golden Daar and Shaharan.

People in Yemen are very welcoming. Yemen has a lot of natural

beauties, but its not yet as poplar as Dubai for example. Here are the

two top places to visit:

On the picture on the right is Aden, the

capital of the Southern Yemen. It is an

ancient city on the sea. The legends say,

that Cain and Abel founded Aden. It

has beautiful ancient cisterns, the

palace of the sultan, the Aideroos-

mosque, the Gold Mohur coast and you

can go on a boat cruise.

Education in Yemen

Literacy rate is low even thou it is constantly raising. There is

also a difference between the rates for males and females.

There were a lot of traditional Islamic schools in Northern

Yemen until 1962. when they developed the modern scholar

system. Egyptians are mostly their teacher since they had

problems finding qualified Yemeni teachers.

After the World War 2 the system in the Southern Yemen

was Communistic and secular. The scholar system was very

developed and they tried to give access to all levels in three-

stage system.

Two major universities are University of San'a (founded in

1970.), variety of specialized colleges, and The University of

Aden (founded in 1975.) which offers similar education.

Three things you must know

. 1990Politics is very interesting in Yemen because until -PoliticsYemen was divided into Southern and Northern Yemen. Now wherever you read about Yemen, Northern and Southern Yemen are separated, and they have completely different political views and parties, though they are trying to work together.

Yemen is a very poor countries and it -(& Economics) Socialis surrounded by very rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and UAE, who have lots of oil, and Oman and Egypt who have very developed tourism. This means that it is very hard for Yemen to stick out and show its beauties.

Yemen has very beautiful landscapes. They have a bit -Physicalof highlands, desert and sea. It will probably be crowded with tourists in a few decades when they fix all the problems they have since united Yemen is a relatively new country.

Bibliography

http://www.britannica.com/nations/Yemen (most of the

information is from the links on this page that lead to other

things about Yemen)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-

factbook/geos/ym.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Sheba

http://www.yemenweb.com/History.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Yemen