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We flew out of Africa in late 1977; stopped for a few days in Ethiopia, where we were restricted to the capital Addis Ababa (Menghistu was then in power, and tourism was consequently extremely limited); then on to Sana'a, the capital of North Yemen (it was two countries then, and they hadn't started fighting each other yet, so it was a good time to visit).
We arrived in the evening, and I still remember entering Sana'a and being overwhelmed by the magic of the place. Men carrying curved daggers (jambiya), wearing white robes and headdresses, fires in braisers outside of the merchant stores, smoke, dust, incense. Most remarkable were the many storied buildings of adobe with white trim:
The markets sold everything from camels to spices, including myrrh and frankincense, and of course mocha coffeenamed after the port city of Mocha. But the really popular item khat, a cash crop grown by about a third of the population - and consumed, by chewing, by just about everybody. Here are some folks buying and selling at the khat market:
Chewing khat leaves gives one a feeling of euphoria. The problem is the cost - it eats up a big chunk of a Yemeni's income. And it also eats up a lot of time: when it is khat day at the market, you can kiss off getting anything done the rest of the day.
By the way, I just looked it up: khat is legal in the U.S., but its active ingredient, cathinone, is a Schedule I controlled substance, and its possession can get you up to life in prison.
The authorities would like to reduce the sale and use of khat, but so far, no such luck. Khat is here to stay.
We had no problem seeing more of the country outside Sana'a: Yemen may be poor, but it also is consided the spiritual heartland of Islam. The southern town of Tarim is believed to have more descendents of the Prophet Mohammed than anywhere else. It is also the ancestral home of Osama Bin Laden's father (!). Which means that Yemen is at the receiving end of lots of aid from other, richer Muslim countries. And this means that a lot of Yemini have been given Toyota Land Cruisers (the vehicle of choice). We found it no trouble at all to get rides to wherever we wanted to go (plus, it didn't hurt that one of us was an attractive female).
We drove to one amazing, abandoned town in the desert: Marib:
We stayed in a "hotel" in Marib, with the caretaker the only other inhabitant. Marib is believed to be the ancient Sheba of biblical fame. Next day we ventured into the desert, to visit the ruins of the pre-Islamic Barran Temple, and scattered stone inscriptions:
Here's the "road" we took to get there.
We came across some desert sheep herders, among the first women we were able to visit. They are not muslims, and hence don't have the restrictions against contacts with ohers.
Away from the desert, the countryside was beautifully cultivated. The inhabitants here are clustered on a hilltop overlooking their fields:
We came across three men with automatic weapons, who obliged my request look fierce:
These guys were happy to show off the their jambayas:
On the coast we visited a hemp market.
And back in Sana'a, a mosque:
I learned from Wikipedia that since our visit, the country has suffered eight years of civil war, begun when the Houtis took over Sana'a in 2014. Concurrently, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched military operations by using air strikes to restore the former Yemeni government. Although there was no direct intervention by Iran, who support the Houthis, the conflict has been seen by Western sources as an extension of the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict and as a means to combat Iranian influence in the region. According to the UN, over 150,000 people have been killed in Yemen, as well as estimates of more than 227,000 dead as a result of an ongoing famine and lack of healthcare facilities due to the war. In 2018, the United Nations warned that 13 million Yemeni civilians face starvation in what it says could become "the worst famine in the world in 100 years." Poor Yemen!
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