Special Sub-Topic: Yemen Authored by: bloomsby Sub-topic of: Asian Countries - Other

Yemen borders on two other countries. One is Saudi Arabia, and what is the other?

Oman. Yemen is situated in the south-west corner of the Arabian Peninsular, opposite the Horn of Africa.

Yemen in its present form was created in 1990 by the merger of two countries - North Yemen (Yemen Arab Republic) and South Yemen (The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen). What was the latter called prior to 1967?

Aden. Aden consisted of a small British Crown Colony and a much larger protectorate.

Yemen controls a busy and important narrow body of water. Which is it?

Bab al Mandab. At its southern end, the Red Sea becomes very narrow - no more than straits, and is called the Bab al Mandab. To the south of Yemen is the Gulf of Aden. The Straits of Hormuz control the entrance to the Persian Gulf and are much further east.

Which of these is almost no significance to the economy of Yemen?

Tourism. In view of the country's reputation as a center of militant Islam the lack of a tourist industry of any significance is unsurprising.

Yemen consists largely of desert. In what part of the country are the more fertile areas found?

The western coastal strip. The fertile areas are mainly in the western part of the country, where there are coffee plantations. There is also some subsistence farming and also herding.

A distinctive type of coffee is cultivated in Yemen. Which of these is it?

Mocha. It was in this region - Yemen and the Horn of Africa - that coffee was first cultivated. Mocha has a reputation for being a 'strong' coffee.

What is the capital?

Sana'a. Before the unification of the two Yemen republics, Sana'a was the capital of North Yemen.

What is the approximate population of the country?

18.1 million. The population rose very rapidly indeed after about 1980.

Yemen is extremely poor. True or false?

t. The "World Factbook", 2001 ed., published by the CIA, states that the annual GDP per head, adjusted for purchasing power, is about US$820. This extremely low figure may be partly the result of the rapid growth in population. Even if substistence farming and herding are not fully relected in this figure, Yemen is among the poorest countries in world.

For about three centuries prior to independence North Yemen belonged to a foreign empire. Which one?

The Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. Ottoman power did not extend beyond the coastal strip and was often nominal.