The most spectacular geographical feature of Yemen is the western mountain slopes.
Yemen's easternmost and southernmost points lie on the distant island of Socotra, which lies closer to Somalia than to Yemen and is nearly the size of Rhode Island.
Soon after the establishment of Israel, a massive airlift transported practically all Jews in Yemen, nearly 50,000, to their ancestral homeland in 1949 and 1950.
Socotra is the one part of Yemen where people of African descent are a majority of the populace.
The border between the two regions of Yemen was fixed by the two powers in 1905.
Unification of the two republics had been the declared goal of the two Yemens since the beginning.
Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis found low-status employment in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states during the late 1970s and 1980s.
Remittances from Yemenis working abroad have long contributed heavily to the country's economy.
The landscape of Yemen changes dramatically in the transition from its shorelines toward the great Rub al-Khali desert.
Goods in Yemen were transported on the backs of laborers and animals, and 90 percent of the people were engaged in subsistence agriculture.
Yemen has one of the world's highest birth rates; the average woman bears seven children.
Part of the reason is that a rigid caste-like system rules the Yemeni social hierarchy, especially in areas of work.
Yemen held a global monopoly on coffee production and trade and in time allowed British, Dutch, French, and later American trade missions and factories to be established on the Red Sea coast.
Many minority groups have departed over the decades and centuries, the best known being the "Yemenite Jews" who once formed a sizable community with a distinct culture and long history.
Substantial Yemeni communities exist in many areas of the globe, including the nation's Arab neighbors, Indonesia, India, East Africa, and also the U.K. and the U.S.
Yemen's relative poverty compared to all other nations on the peninsula may partly be due to its having been a country divided in two for the better part of three centuries.
Yemen is basically a poor country, perhaps not as poor as its African neighbors but definitely not as prosperous as its fellow Arab nations.
Most Yemenis belong to one of two principal Islamic religious groups: the Shi’a, found in the north and northwest, and the Sunni, who live predominately in the south and southeast.
Yemen's territory includes the remote island of Socotra, about 350 km to the south off the Horn of Africa.
The emergence of Islam sparked an unprecedented spiritual revival in the region, profoundly changing and reshaping Yemen.
The difficult terrain and lack of educated, qualified, and experienced personnel remain the main obstacles to Yemen's development.
One of Yemen's most prized art forms is the recitation of poetry in classical and colloquial styles.
Yemen's population is close to 21 million, ranking it second again on the peninsula and approaching that of Texas.
The most spectacular geographical feature of Yemen is the western mountain slopes.
The Republic of Yemen is a country on the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden on the south and the Red Sea on the west.
The land centering on Yemen was known as Arabia Felix ("Fortunate Arabia") by the Roman Empire, which believed it held fabulous riches.
The name Yemen is not of certain origin but probably derives from the Arabic word meaning "south," signifying its location on the Arabian Peninsula.
During this period, Yemen again experienced a prosperous period with the world's discovery of coffee, the cultivation of which some believe began in southern Arabia.
The famed Queen of Sheba is said to have ruled there, though other locations outside Yemen make the same claim.
Distant caliphates ruled over Yemen at times; at other times local Shi’a imamates held sway for centuries.
The western mountain slopes are the natural habitat of coffee, a crop that probably began its world career in Yemen.