Sana'a

Sana'a is the capital of Yemen, on a high plateau in the mountains of the west of the country. Its old city of tower houses, built of stone and brown brick and trimmed with white gypsum around the windows, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Local tradition names Shem, the son of Noah, as the founder of the city, and Sana'a was a stop on the old incense routes of southern Arabia. The Ghumdan Palace, a many-storied castle of the pre-Islamic kings of Himyar, stood there before the coming of Islam. The Great Mosque of Sana'a was built in the 7th century and is among the oldest mosques in the world. Zaydi imams ruled the highlands from the city for long periods, and the Ottoman Empire held it in the 16th and 17th centuries and again in the 19th century. Sana'a became the capital of North Yemen in the 1960s and of the united Republic of Yemen in 1990.

Yemeni coffee, grown on the terraced slopes of the mountains around the city and sold abroad for centuries under the name Mocha, is its best-known product. The valleys nearby grow grapes, much of them dried into raisins for the markets of the old city. Silversmiths, weavers and makers of the curved jambiya dagger worn with traditional dress keep their workshops in the old souks.

Bab al-Yemen, the southern gate of the old city walls, opens onto the market streets. Souq al-Milh, the salt market behind it, sells spices, raisins, incense, silver jewelry and qamariya glass. The qamariya, a half-moon window of alabaster or colored glass set above the regular windows, is a mark of the tower houses of Sana'a.