Yemeni men in everyday dress, including jambiya daggers and thick, ornate belts.
Sana at sunset: mosque minarets and centuries- old apartments.
Old Sana is a beautiful collection of ancient stone & brick buildings, decorated with limestone in Arabic motifs and accentuated with lovely wooden windows and doors. Stalls in the central souq sell an amazing variety of spices, raisins, honey, dates, nuts, qat, cooking oil, utensils, clothing, metalwork and jambiyas – the ceremonial daggers worn by nearly every male Yemeni. My first day in Sana was extraordinary: all the men wear their traditional dress which includes their jambiya, a gutra (head dress), a sarong or dishdasha and a blazer. Not just on the holy day of Friday but every day. The women are almost universally dressed in full black abeyyas with only their eyes showing.
Fish supper and the biggest bread imaginable.
The buildings here are crazy. Beautiful.
The best part of my visit, however, was how incredibly friendly the people were. When I was searching for a bus out of Sana, the bus ticket guy invited me for a delicious lunch behind the counter. When I was lost, two pharmacy students found the right shared-taxi, escorted me there and then paid for my fare. When I gave one restaurant owner $1 for a $0.75 meal, he insisted I take my change. Yemenis are wonderful, warm, generous and fun people. It was such a pleasant shock getting to know them, and living and traveling with them. I was sorry I didn't see more of this country.
The winter plains below Sana: one of the state's breadbaskets.
Yemen is not well known in the world. In 2000, the USS COLE was bombed in Aden, a southern port, killing 17 servicemen. There is also the occasional joke about Yemeni gun bazaars: the culture here is heavily tribal and a few parts are still wild and gun bazaars can indeed be found. I hear you can buy Kalashnikovs, grenades, surface-to-air missiles and other toys for boys. There is also an obsession with chewing qat; I'll talk about that later. To me, though, the areas I visited where as safe as can be. As always, the traffic can be harrowing but that was the only issue.
Craftsmen repair jambiyas on the sidewalk.
Women in abeyas and young kids.
The distinctive buildings of Sana and the paved river bed (wadi) that is used as a quick route through the city.
Local boys in Jibla, 2ookm south of Sana.
Nadir and his son. We met over a glass of tea.
The birthplace of Arabic and mocha, Yemen is also where Noah's ark was supposedly built. Many cities were part of the ancient spice trade (frankenscence, mir and all that) which included the ancient Nabataen city of Petra and stretched through Oman and into Dubai and across to Iran. Today, it is exists both in the past and the future. On several mornings, a couple of MiG fighters flew over the city. The fight for independence and unity was a long, bitter struggle and the Yemeni air force is quite impressive as a result.
Men wait to be hired for painting and odd jobs.
