With some of the oldest history on earth, cities guarded by mountaintop fortresses, and home to the galapagos of the middle east, Yemen may have more to offer travelers than any other country in the entire region. Unfortunately in recent times when most people these days think of Yemen, the first things that come to mind are terrorism and civil unrest. Not that you can blame them though; in early 2011 immediately before my trip here some international experts said Al Qaeda's stronghold had moved from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen, and news of sporadic attacks and other issues never help. But while many Yemenis I met won't deny the risks of traveling and problems that happen here, the majority of the population is extremely welcoming to foreigners and will do their best to make sure you have an amazing experience here.

The capital of Yemen is Sana'a located in the western side of the country high up in the mountains. At an altitude of 2,300 meters or 7,500 feet it's one of the highest capitals on earth. Sana'a's history goes way back to the 6th century BC when the city was first founded also making it one of the oldest continuously habited cities in the world. Above is a photo of one of Sana'a's districts, on the right is one of the highest mountains in the country, right outside the capital.

When I visited Yemen, its president was Ali Abdullah Saleh who has led this country since the 1970s going on 33 years. The president's picture is seen in all over the capital like on cars, posted on walls, or framed pictures inside shops. I visited Yemen at an interesting time, the president of Tunisia had just been over thrown, and as the locals told me this is unheard of for an Arabic leader. Support for Saleh seemed to be mixed, but it seems the majority wanted him to move on after over three decades. Outside the capital, it was rarely I saw his picture, and only a month after my trip the 'Arab Spring' arrived which led to his fall. On the right is the King's Mosque that he had built only 5 years ago.

Above is a photo of the main entrance to the King's mosque, just recently completed in 2008. With a capacity of over 40,000 worshippers, this is the largest mosque in Yemen, and from what I saw once I entered, I assume it's also the most beautiful. On the left hand side is a photo of the main entrance to the mosque, on the right is a side view taken as the sun was beginning to set.

These surrounding photos were all taken from inside the King's mosque. This is seriously one of the most amazing religious buildings I've ever been in. The top two photos are taken of the main interior where people gather to pray, the lower left is a photo of one of the ceiling showing one of the domes rising up. On the lower right, is a chandelier reflecting light from the stained glass windows. I explored this place for a long time until some guy kept asking me if I was Muslim. I pretended like I didn't understand and once I heard him asking others about my religion I left.

Sana'a is made up of countless districts, but the most impressive part is the old city. Old Sana'a is protected by a wall that once had seven gates, but today only one of the 1,000 year old gates is still standing. Above is a photo of the old city; this architecture is only found in this part of the world. On the upper right is the entrance to the suq, or the old city market. I took this picture while standing right in front of the old city's gate. Below is a photo of one a towering minaret in Old Sana'a, and on the lower right, 'river road' which supposedly becomes just that when it rains.

Above are two photos from the old city's suq; spices being sold on the left and some pottery and cooking items on the right. The market sells all kinds of items from meat, traditional daggers, silvers and gold to pretty much anything else you might need while in yemen.

You'll notice that from many of my photos of the Sana'a area most men carry the jambiya, or traditional dagger. In Arabic, jamibya literally means dagger, but normally when this word is used in the middle east it's referring to the Yemeni version. I almost never buy souvenirs, but had to pick up two myself to take home with me! Above on the right are some jambiyas being sold in a market.

There was only one museum that I stopped by during my entire visit to Yemen. I'm not sure of the name, but it had some art created by local artists. The roof of the museum gave a great view of Sana'a, and since this place is free there is no reason not to visit. Really though, the entire city is a museum such as the star of david on the upper right that was left behind when Jews lived in large numbers in Yemen. After the creation of Israel, almost all Jews who were living in Yemen moved there. Most Yemenis I came in contact told me that while they hated Israel, not surprising, they didn't have any hate for the jewish religion, and in fact still consider Yemeni Jews living in Israel as their brothers, surprising!

These two photos are from outside the city, on the left is my driver and one of my guards I was required to have in order to leave the city eating traditional Yemeni food. These guys on the upper right were complete strangers who ended up running into me and we all had some tea. Unfortunately my Arabic is as good as their English, so we weren't able to talk! I wonder though if they participated in the protests weeks later.

One of my favorite experiences in Yemen was the traditional drums and dancing that I saw in one of the smaller villages. These guys put on a good show and forced me to join in at one point. This kind of music and dances almost always take place during weddings throughout Yemen.The guy playing the drum on the far left was awesome and one of the most curious people I ever met while traveling. He had a million questions for me; how do people go scuba diving? What happens if you hit a rock while skiing? How are homes heated in USA in the winter.

Yemen is one of the most conservative countries I've ever visited. Every woman I saw wore a black burqa here in the capital and only a small percent of women had an open faced burqa. I didn't see any exceptions in other parts of the country, but there were different colors farther south and a mix with black and white in the east. A local told me that traditional Yemeni clothing was more colorful and the black burqas were introduced only two decades ago from the other gulf countries. Something else about Yemen that has probably been a long tradition; it's one of the highest countries in the world with armed civilians. On the upper right, a man passes by a market while carrying an AK-47. In all parts of the country this seemed to be consistent, in one market on the easter side of Yemen, I counted four people with guns within about 5 minutes. One guy in Yemen told me a story about two friends who were arguing, and one guy took his pistol and slammed it on the other guys head accidently discharging a round into someone standing nearby. Thinking he killed another one of his friends, he fled to the north of the country and went into hiding. When the family somehow got a hold of him and told him that he had shot is friend in the shoulder and everything was fine, he suspected they were lying and wanted him to come back to Sana'a so they could kill him in revenge. He eventually did go back and found out that his other friend he accidently shot was fine, so to people in Yemen it turned out to be a funny story that had a happy ending.

If I had just arrived to Yemen without any prior knowledge about the country, I'd guess this country's economy was growing at a rate of 10% a year based on some parts of the city. In almost all areas of Sana'a I visited, new buildings seemed to be under construction, brand new roads were in place, and advertisements for future projects were found advertised along the roads. The photo on the upper left is of an advertisment of what the new airports in each city will look like after being completed. On the right was one of many new buildings under construction. Before coming to the US, I had read that the Kuwaitis had funded dozens of construction projects in Yemen putting billions of dollars in investments.

Above are two photos of the impressive town of Thula, also called Thilla. The town is pretty small but its history and architecture make it worth a visit. Over a thousand years old, the city has seen a lot in its life time and even was the birth place of a president. On the left is the main part of the city, while on the right is where people collect their drinking water high up in the desert. I met some interesting locals here who gave me a run down on their opinions on the world and Yemen. The guy here told me that Yemen had four problems that needed to be solved, the first one was Al Qaeda, second was the southern movement, third being tribal feuds, and finally the forth, was Yemen's negative image on the media.

These kids above are from the small town near the desert canyon called Wadi Dhar. They both had their own falcons that they used to once show to tourists and pose for pictures. An older guy who was here and claimed to be Harry Potter told me they used to get 50 tourists here a day years back, now you are the only one he said. I regret not taking Harry Potter's picture, his glasses were shattered because he had dropped them the day before he told me. The bird on the right was also captive, but from the eastern part of the country.

Before coming to Yemen, I saw several pictures of the building to the left while researching my trip. I kind of assumed it was just a large and creatively built house, but it's actually a summer palace. Known as Dar Al Hajjar palace, it rises over 50 meters above the surrounding land, and was home to the Imam Yahya in the early 20th century. The inside of the place has dozens of rooms ranging from a large kitchen, to dining rooms, bedrooms for the king, princesses and for the servants. I took a lot of photos of this place, but since I try to limit my pictures per country to around 100 and I'm closer to 150 for Yemen, I had to remove some. Above is a photo of one of the gathering areas where they would have meetings or dinner. Today the entire complex is a museum, so you are free to explore every level.

I came across this fortress actually towards the end of my trip. It's located about an hour from Sana'a, and to be honest I came across so many fortresses and old castles while in Yemen that I wasn't too motivated about visiting this place. Once I arrived the views and the ruins themselves made it worth it. What was unique about this castle to me was there were actually people still living in the lower half of the fortress. I was wandering around inside thinking I had this whole place to myself, when I realized people were inside their houses and looking at me. The old woman on the right came out with a key and showed me around at the top part of the fortress which is kept locked by the villagers.

After I was done visiting Sana'a, I took a road trip south with my goal being the Arabian Sea. Police road blocks and impressive scenery kept me entertained all the way to Aden. Above is a family who was packing for a road trip of their own. On the right is one of the first views I saw.

The few towns I passed through had lots of people selling carrots and pumpkins for some reason. I thought this was a strange combination, or at least I wasn't expecting to see wheel barrels of carrots and dozens of pumpkins lining up the streets in Yemen.

Some of the roads reach nearly 10,000 feet along the drive south. I'm not sure how high I was at this point in these two photos above, but I'd say definitely over 8,000 feet. The trip from Sana'a to Aden isn't very far in terms of distance, but windy roads like these add lots of miles.

Looks like the international sport soccer is common here in Yemen for boys as well. The kids on the right were playing some type of game that invovled rolling stones onto a sewer lid. I wasn't sure if the sewer lid was their by coincidence, but later I saw other kids playing it the same way.

Just like in east Africa, across the red sea here in Yemen khat is very popular. I had seen khat before in Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia, and even though I knew it was used in the middle east I never realized it was also grown here. On the upper left is part of a khat farm that I passed by along the highway. On the upper right is one of several guys along the street trying to sell it to passing motorists. A local in Yemen told me the khat that is grown here is not nearly as strong as the ones used in eastern Africa. I tried it in Ethiopia once, but didn't care to try again here.

Most Muslim countries I've visited don't like me going in their mosques since I don't share their beliefs. In the towns of Jiblah and Ibb, both of their mosques had people who were determined to get me inside. Above is the mosque of Jiblah, with one of the religious leaders giving me a quick tour. The only other mosques I have been inside out of the dozen of Muslim countries I've ever visited is Afghanistan of all places.

Inside the mosque that I visited in the city of Ibb, is queen Awra's tomb on the left, and on the right some ancient qurans that someone took out for me to see. He claimed the qurans were about 500 years old, the experience here reminded me of visiting an ancient church in Ethiopia where I was shown ancient bibles that were supposedly over a 1,000 years old while in the ancient city of Axum.

Above are two photos of the city of Taiz, located more than halfway between Sana'a and Aden. I just stopped by this city on the way to Aden actually, but I had to visit the castle on top of the mountain on the upper left photo which watches over all of Taiz. Later I regretted not spending more time here when I found out Taiz was the capital of Yemen for hundreds of years. Taiz swapped with Sana'a several times as the capital in more recent times, and finally Sana'a became the permanent capital in 1962. I think either way the ancient castle which is known as castle Qalat al-Qahira and was built some 700 years ago is the highlight of the city. For several hundred years as well, the city was protected by an enormous wall that scaled up mountains and circled all of Taiz. On the right you can see a large part of the wall descending down steep terrain.

The photo on the left was taken of the city from one of the highest points in the city. You can see part of the city's old wall going up the center part of the photo before it goes out of view behind the small hill. On the right is a photo of the main part of the castle.

Castle Qalat al-Qahira had several parts that were under restoration. These guys on the left asked me to take their photo while they were hard at work. I think a lot of the work here is a bit dangerous since the scaffolding and lack of regulations leaves them hanging over some dangerous drops most of the time. The pool on the right was no exception, but that's what made it so amazing having a large body of water by a sheer wall.

The top of the castle obviously has some amazing views of the city of Taiz. Fortunately for me, most of the castle at the top was finished being restored. These guys definitely did a great job with it, most of the rooms and walkways were clean and looked bran new. Above is the final fort at the top of the castle. My favorite part of this place was the giant door on the left that was opened up to the sky.

One other place I did visit in Taiz before moving on was the Al-Ashrafiya mosque. Like the castle Qalat al-Qahira, the mosque here was under complete restoration, so some parts weren't worth taking any photos. The ceiling however was the only thing that seemed to be completely restored. Aside from the King's Mosque, the inside here had some of the most beautiful decorations I've ever seen inside a mosque.

The above photos are from the port city of Aden located on the southern coast of Yemen. This ancient city is one of the oldest in the world and is mentioned several times in both the bible and the quran, some even say Cain and Abel are buried here! I hiked to the top of Seera castle which is where I took the photo on the upper left. I haven't been to Brazil yet, but the scenery from the top of the castle immediately made me think of photos I've seen from Rio De Janiero. Aden is also one of the rare places in Yemen where foreigners can find a bar and grab a drink.

Aden was actually part of South Yemen, which was basically an independent country from 1967 through 1990. This area was reunited with northern Yemen in 1990 when the British, who were controlling the area, pulled out. South Yemen attempted to gain full independence in 1994, and this led to a violent civil war which ended when North Yemen captured Aden. To this day, there are many who seek to separate from the North, and as a matter of fact only two days after I left Aden, I saw on the news that thousands of people took to the street to protest the government of Sana'a, and a few gun battles broke out with people being wounded. Despite the occasional clashes here, Aden still is a dream for those seeking to escape Somalia. Every year, thousands of Somalias make it to Yemen illegally, many using tiny boats like the one on the upper right. Many drown at sea in accidents, but many also arrive on the beaches of Aden with no passport, money, or place to go.

Since I've never enjoyed seafood nothing in any of these next three photos is appealing to me. I'm not sure if a normal seafood lover would be in paradise here or not, but if so, there was quite an assortment of sea creatures. The most common above are obviously different types of fish and some large crabs. I also saw shrimp, some really ugly species of fish like the one on the lower left, and yes the sea turtle below is dead and will be eaten.

Two things I was surprised to find in Aden was the large church above, and the shopping mall on the right. As far as religion goes, Aden like the rest of Yemen is mostly muslim, but many of their descendants were both jews and christians. The shopping mall above is the only one in the country according to my driver. When he took me inside he kept waving his hand in all directions at all the stores and was laughing all they had to offer. I suppose a shopping mall is a new concept here, and he was proud to show me one. The pictures below are two stores in the mall that weren't too far from each other. One of them, on the left is selling burqas, while on the the right is another women's store selling western style clothing. I thought it was strange since you can't wear the clothes out in public, so maybe in Yemen this is like lingerie to be used at home.

Like Sana'a, Aden is also being invested in and has several new projects popping up. The left photo was a model I saw called Yemen New City. My driver said it was already completed, but since his English is about as good as my Arabic I'm not sure if he completely understood my question. The nice buildings on the right are the museums of Aden.

These water tanks above are known as Cisterns of Tawila. A sign nearby describing them had something I had never seen before. They basically admitted they had no idea who built these or when, but they are anywhere from one to two thousand years old.

I found this strange tree in Aden as well, with roots growing directly off its branches. I've never seen a tree like this before, and at first didn't understand why it would've evolved this way. Finally I got the simple concept and realized that the roots growing from branches probably fall down over surrounding rocks and cover them completely, basically picking up every drop of water they possibly find in the dry and hot desert.

These two photos above are from the central part of Yemen, this is the costal city known as Mukalla. I'm not sure what was going on, but apparently some kind of threat had popped up in the city and I was told I couldn't leave the hotel all of a sudden. Good thing I had taken these photos before hand. I had planned to leave my hotel and walk around this canal or waterfront, but that has to be on another visit.

I left Mukalla the next morning to explore the surrounding region. The land here was initially boring other than the different style towns and all the camels I saw roaming around. The first photo above was from a small village where they had dozens of camels chained up.

It didn't take long for the scenery to get interesting though. I forgot to mention this part of Yemen has been known as a rough region, so I was required to have an armed escort. I figured I'd have a single guard but when I went to check out of the hotel and instead saw a tracer vehicle and seven guys with machine guns waiting for me. I don't like the extra attention and hate the feeling of being a westerner with an insane security detail as if I think I'm some celebrity. The guys seemed enthusiastic about the road trip though and none of them asked me for money so I was happy to bring them along. On the road heading north, we came across a large canyon that had an ancient city built on it. See the city from the left above and a close up below. On the upper right are my guards, who were even impressed with the views and used their cell phones to take pictures. On the lower right is another impressive city located farther away that we later drove to. It has some colorful painted buildings, probably the most impressive was the one I was in while I took taht photo. You can see similar buildings on the left side of the photo that are painted with reds, blues and greens. My guess is that the general material is used to make any building which is the same color as the surrounding land, if you got the money for it then you can take the extra step of painting it white, and if you want to go all out add colors.

After the coastal city of Mukalla, the next important city in this region is Seiyun. Located almost dead center of the entire country, Seiyun's main attraction is the Sultan Al Kathiri Palace palace seen in the upper right. Built in the 1920s, it's the city's biggest landmark and was built up from a small fort to over 90 rooms and a total height of 35 meters. There is a large museum inside, but it was closed for two days when I was here.

One of the most amazing places in Yemen to me was Shibam Al Hadhramaut, located just outside of Seiyun. These buildings above are often called the world's first skyscrappers, or the Manhattan of the desert. First created over 1,700 years ago, and these structures stand anywhere from 5 to 11 stories high. Above is a panoramic view of Shibam with a close up on the lower left and the main entrance below.

The inside of the city wasn't really kept very clean like the rest of Yemen unfortunately. Shibam is a world heritage site run by UNESCO, but after Al Qaeda attacked the city just over year ago and killed several foreigners perhaps it doesn't get as many visitors or attention as it used to. The upper left is a detailed photo of the exterior of one of the buildings, on the right is a small shack surrounded by ancient skyscrappers.

I'm not sure what that strange plant on the left is doing, but it was cool enough that I figured it deserved to be shared with the rest of the world on my Yemen page. On the right is a photo of some dried out grass above 7,000 feet. Can you spot the grasshopper in the upper right photo?

This amazing blue lizard was also found above 7,000 feet in the mountains outside of Sana'a. I've no idea what the species is but it's definitely one of my favorite lizards in the world. He was about a foot long, so a pretty decent size and I saw four of them in less than 2 hours of hiking.

With mainland Yemen conquered, I set out for the exotic island of Socotra, located just off the coast of Somalia's Puntland. Socotra is a place that few people in the world seem to know about, but for me it's a place that has been high on my list for years. I called this place the Galapagos of the middle east, and was offended when I later found out that some already refer to this place as the galapagos of the Indian Ocean.

Socotra is by far one of the most unique and amazing islands in the world. I decided that Socotra should have its own webpage on my site, so click here to read about my experience there and see about 50 additional photos. The above photo is one of the giant dragon trees that is one of several endemic plants on the island. On the right is one of the local girls dressed up in traditional clothing. While Arabic is the official language here, Socotra actually has its own language that isn't related to Arabic. It seems that both the plants, animals, and culture of Socotra are endemic.

Joao from Brasil: I don't have words to express my felling about that place. I never saw something like that before. Very nice!

Vinithia from India: There is an ancient Hindu hill temple tucked away in a cave like place close to crater. iwas very very surprised to find one . it was a steep climb.some 20 yrs. ago i believe there was a hindu muslim clash when most of the indians returned to india. the educated society living there now either professionals or tecgnicians are mostly from india. there are some living there for more than 40yrs.There have been trade ties dating back to centuries between the 2 countries. plenty of evidences are there. some popular flowers grown in south india are richly grown here. Most words have a sanskrit or hindi link. i was amazed. in hardly a month i picked up more than 40word vocabulary