Yemen is a country at the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, Oman to the east, the Red Sea to the west, and the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea to the south. Its historic capital is Sana’a, though since 2015 the internationally recognized government has operated from the southern port city of Aden while a civil war has divided the country’s territory and institutions. Yemen’s population is estimated at roughly 40 million, though the lack of a recent census and the disruption of war mean estimates from different sources vary widely.

• Location: Southwestern Arabian Peninsula, between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.
• Capital: Sana’a (historic), with the internationally recognized government based in Aden since 2015.
• Best known for: The Old City of Sana’a, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its multistory earthen tower houses, and the biologically unique island of Socotra.
• Government today: A country divided between an internationally recognized government and the Houthi movement (Ansar Allah), which controls Sana’a and much of the north.
• Economy: Historically dependent on oil and gas exports, agriculture, and remittances; severely contracted since the war began.

Where Is Yemen Located?

Yemen occupies the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, at the point where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. It shares its only land borders with Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the east. Yemen’s territory also includes several islands, most notably Socotra in the Indian Ocean, along with smaller islands in the Red Sea such as the Kamaran group. Yemen’s total land area is roughly 455,000 square kilometers (about 175,700 square miles), comparable in size to France or the US state of California.

Geography and Terrain

Yemen’s terrain shifts dramatically over short distances. A narrow, hot coastal plain called the Tihama runs along the Red Sea coast. Inland, the land rises sharply into a rugged highland region that includes Jabal An-Nabi Shu’ayb, the highest peak on the Arabian Peninsula at roughly 3,666 meters (12,028 feet). East of the highlands, the terrain descends into desert that merges with the Rub’ al-Khali, or “Empty Quarter,” one of the largest sand deserts in the world. The combination of altitude and aridity gives Yemen a wide range of microclimates, from humid coastal heat to cool highland nights, and historically supported terraced agriculture unusual for the Arabian Peninsula.

A Brief History of Yemen

Yemen’s highlands were home to some of pre-Islamic Arabia’s most advanced civilizations. The Sabaean kingdom, associated in legend with the Queen of Sheba, and later the Himyarite kingdom built their wealth on the overland and maritime incense and spice trade that passed through southern Arabia, earning the region the classical name “Arabia Felix” (“Fortunate Arabia”). A Himyarite ruler, Shammar Yuhar’ish, unified much of what is now Yemen in the late third century CE, and the region later adopted a monotheistic cult before the arrival of Islam in the seventh century.

In the modern era, Yemen was split between a northern area under Ottoman and later independent rule and a southern area, centered on the port of Aden, controlled by Britain as a colony and protectorate. The two territories developed separately through the 20th century, emerging as two separate states, North Yemen and South Yemen, each going through its own revolutions and political upheavals. The two Yemens unified on May 22, 1990, to form the Republic of Yemen under President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Yemen’s post-unification history includes a 1994 civil war between northern and southern factions, the 2011 Arab Spring protests that led to Saleh’s resignation, and a political transition that ultimately broke down and led to the current civil war, discussed below.

Government and Economy

Yemen’s constitutional framework provides for a multiparty republic headed by a president and prime minister, with a legislature. In practice, since 2014-2015 the country’s formal institutions have been split between competing authorities, a situation explained in the section below.

Economically, Yemen was already one of the poorest countries in the Arabian Peninsula before the war, dependent on modest oil and gas exports, subsistence and cash-crop agriculture (including qat, a mild stimulant chewed widely in Yemeni society), fishing, and remittances from Yemeni workers abroad. The World Bank estimates that the conflict has cut real GDP by roughly 43 percent since 2015 and GDP per capita by close to 60 percent, with remittances now accounting for nearly 39 percent of GDP. The country’s currency and banking system have fractured along territorial lines, with the central bank relocated to Aden in 2016 and a separate monetary authority operating from Sana’a, producing two different exchange rates and complicating trade and investment.

The Current Conflict: A Neutral Summary

The following paragraph summarizes a contested and ongoing situation; claims by any party to the conflict are attributed as such. Yemen’s civil war began in 2014-2015, when the Houthi movement (officially Ansar Allah), a group rooted in the Zaidi Shia community of northern Yemen, took control of the capital, Sana’a, and pushed the government of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi to resign and later flee to Aden and then Saudi Arabia. A Saudi Arabia-led military coalition intervened in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government. As of the most recent reporting, the Houthi movement controls Sana’a and most of the densely populated northwest, where a large majority of Yemenis live, while the internationally recognized government, backed at various points by the coalition and allied with the secessionist Southern Transitional Council, holds Aden and much of the south and east, including most of the country’s oil and gas infrastructure. The United Nations and humanitarian agencies describe the resulting crisis as one of the world’s most severe, citing an estimated 4.5 million internally displaced people and more than 18 million people in need of humanitarian assistance as of early 2025.

Culture and People of Yemen

Yemen’s population is overwhelmingly Arab and Muslim, split between Sunni and Zaidi Shia communities, with Arabic as the official language and distinct regional dialects. Traditional Yemeni culture places a strong emphasis on tribal and family networks, Islamic observance, and hospitality customs such as serving coffee or tea to guests. Qat chewing is a widespread social practice, often accompanying gatherings where men and women discuss family, business, or politics. Yemeni architecture is especially distinctive: multistory houses built of rammed earth, mud brick, or stone, often decorated with white gypsum trim around windows, are found throughout the highlands and are most famously preserved in the Old City of Sana’a.

What Yemen Is Best Known For

Globally, Yemen is best known for the Old City of Sana’a, whose skyline of centuries-old multistory tower houses, built from rammed earth and fired brick with elaborate white gypsum ornamentation, has made it one of the most recognizable urban landscapes in the Arab world. The Old City of Sana’a has been inhabited for over 2,500 years and is widely regarded as one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth. Yemen is also known for Socotra, an island in the Indian Ocean whose long isolation produced a highly distinctive flora, including the umbrella-shaped dragon’s blood tree, found almost nowhere else on earth. Historically, Yemen is remembered as the source of the ancient incense trade and as the original “Mocha,” the port from which coffee was first exported to the wider world in the 16th and 17th centuries, giving the beverage one of its common names.

Why Yemen Matters Globally

Yemen sits astride Bab-el-Mandeb, the strait connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints for shipping between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, including a large share of global oil and container traffic. This strategic position, combined with the scale of its humanitarian crisis, has made Yemen a recurring focus of international diplomacy, UN Security Council attention, and global aid efforts. At the same time, its ancient cities and unique island ecosystem represent an important part of the world’s cultural and natural heritage, one that heritage organizations have worked to document and protect even as access and conservation have been complicated by years of conflict.

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed October 5, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue