Special Sub-Topic: Yemen Click Here To Play: Yemen

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?

23.6 million. Source: Wikipedia article on Yemen, accessed on 2 September 2009. The country has for two decades had one of the highest birth-rates in the world, and 46% of the population is under the age of 15. On average, every woman in the country gives birth to seven children in her lifetime - which is a very high figure.

Yemen is a poor country.

t. The Wikipedia article on Yemen, accessed on 2 Septmber 2009, gives the annual GDP per head, adjusted for purchasing power, as about US$2,412. This low figure may be partly the result of rapid population growth. Even if substistence farming is not fully relected in this figure, Yemen is poor.

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.