Arabia Felix in Latin and Arabia Eudemon in Greek,  Yemen was so-called in the ancient world. Both names mean “Arabia the Blessed”. This because of its fertile land that grew endemic cereals, fruit, resin, spices and aromatic trees that produced fragrant substances such as, frankincense and myrrh which were used in the ritual ceremonies in Temples.

 In Yemen, great civilizations were established. The most renowned civilization was Saba or Sheba. The Sabaeans established Dams to irrigate their lands and they constructed the greatest Dam in the ancient world, Marib Dam (about 610 BC), its remains have been still so far. The kingdom of Sheba flourished and became wealthy owing to its monopoly to the trade routes between ancient East and West Civilizations. One of the Sabaean Rulers was the Queen Bilquis (the Queen of Sheba) who was very renowned when she undertook a journey to meet the Prophet Solomon. The Story of this Queen mentioned in the Holly Qura’an and the Bible, too. She established her capital in Marib (about 2500 yeas ago). Many remains of the Queen’s Throne and Temples have remained so far. So Marib is considered one of the most significant archeological sites in Yemen.

 In the 17th century, Yemen had well known reputation in Europe for trading Yemeni coffee, which was considered the finest coffee.. The Red Sea Mokha port (some of the famous coffee shops bear the name of Mokha in Europe) had become one of the busiest ports of its day.  Some of the European merchant transported Yemeni coffee plants to several regions in the world such as Indonesia, Brazil and Jamaica.

Yemen topography is very varied. To the west along the Red Sea there is a flat sandy plain about 30 to 40 Kms wide and extending the length of the country. There is a similar plain with occasional extensions of mountains to the south. In the interior there is an immense plate of granite with layers of weathered sedimentary rocks interspersed with the remains of volcanic activity. This plate is tilted upwards on a northwest-southeast axis to heights of well over 3000m (the highest mountain is 3660m). The southern axis of this plate runs parallel to the south coast with the heights of the mountain gradually reducing until by the time the border with Oman is reached, the heights is no more than approximately 1000m.

The land slopes away to the northwest from these two mountain axes through high fertile plateaus. On one of these the capital Sana'a is located; Marib, the ancient capital of the Queen of Sheba is on another. As the lie of the land continues to fall towards the northeast, the landscape changes to become scrub and desert. With the exception of one important valley- Hadramawt this eastern half of the country is empty of people and devoid of cultivation.