To the Romans, Yemen was Arabia Felix, whose mountains and fertile areas distinguished it from the barren desert of the rest of the Arabian peninsula. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Yemen came into the seventh century under the influence of Islam. It remained within the orbit of various regional powers until, in the 15th century, it became a flashpoint in the struggle between the Egyptians and the Ottoman Empire. During the early 17th and early 19th centuries, the struggle for control was between the Europeans and the Ottomans.

Protection of the Suez sea route was imperative for the British, who occupied the port of Aden in 1839. The Yemeni hinterland was mostly under the loose control of the Ottoman Empire throughout the 19th century, until 1918, when the Imam Yahya took power in what became the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR). Aden and its surroundings, meanwhile, were firmly established as a British colony. Yahya was assassinated in 1948 and his son Ahmed took over. From 1958 to 1961, the YAR was federated with Egypt and Syria in the United Arab States. Ahmed died in 1962 and an army coup led to civil war.

By this time, in the south, the British colonial forces faced armed opposition from both the leftist National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY). In 1967, just before the formation of the Yemen Democratic People’s Republic in the south by the victorious NLF forces, a Republican government took control in the north. There was intermittent warfare between the two Yemens throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s and political instability in the north throughout the 1970s.

In 1978, Lieutenant-Colonel Ali Abdullah Saleh became Head of State in the north. In the same year, Ali Nasser Muhammad became Head of State in the south. In 1986, civil war between rival elements within the armed forces broke out. A new government was formed under Haydar Abu Bakr al-Attas. The long-promised merger of the two Yemens took place in 1990 and Ali Abdullah Saleh became leader of the unified country.

Since then Yemen has established itself as a tourist destination, attracting travelers with its striking scenery and spectacular Islamic and pre-Islamic architecture. Yemen boasts hugely varied landscapes, from magnificent mountains to lush fruit-growing valleys to semi-arid plains and wide sandy beaches. The towns and cities hide souks and spice markets, mosques and ancient city walls.

The country is home to numerous significant archeological sites, while adventure travelers can enjoy camping and trekking in the unique Socotra archipelago, which counts over 270 endemic species among its enormous range of wildlife and plantlife.

Geography
The Republic of Yemen is bordered in the northwest, north and northeast by Saudi Arabia, in the east by Oman and in the south by the Gulf of Aden. To the west lies the Red Sea. The islands of Perim and Karam in the southern Red Sea are also part of the Republic. Yemen is predominantly mountainous, supporting terraced agriculture. The Hadramaut is a range of high mountains in the center of the country. Highlands rise steeply in central Yemen, ranging in height from approximately 200m (656ft) to the 4000m (13,123ft) peak of Jabal Nabi Shauib. In contrast is Tihama, a flat semi-desert coastal plain to the west, 50 to 100km (30 to 60 miles) wide. Surface water flows down from the mountains through the valleys during the rainy season and the area is cultivated for cotton and grain. In the east, the mountains drop away to the Rub al-Khali or ‘Empty Quarter’ of the Arabian Peninsula, a vast sea of sand. The arid coastal plains are fringed with sandy beaches.