The great places the news will never tell you about

If it weren’t for an episode of Friends, many people would never have heard of Yemen. As it is, most know little of this Middle Eastern country, or could even locate it on a map. Yemen, with a history that spans thousands of years sits on the southern side of the Arabian Peninsula. Saudi Arabia borders the country to the north.

Apparently, the ancient Romans called the area Arabia Felix, Happy Arabia. But there is little to be happy about in Yemen these days. It is the poorest country in the Arab world; burdened by an unemployment rate of 40% (183^rd in the world), and oil reserves that are expected to be depleted in 2017. And while the government has attempted to improve economic conditions and reduce illiteracy, Yemen has come in the news recently for largely negative reasons. The government has been fighting a civil war with religious rebels, and parts of the country are purported to support terrorist training camps.

I mention Yemen because despite the negative attention that the country has received, there are some historical treasures that are worthy of knowing about. In fact, a few years back I was interested in writing about Yemenia, the county’s national airline, but the folks there were inept; hence I was unable to arrange a visit (this ineptitude is not exclusive to Yemenia, similar useless public relations people can also be found at AVIANCA, Aer Lingus, TransAero, and a host of other airlines, I digress).

We often see a country through the lens of a television camera, or the tip of a pen (do writers still write?), and usually what we see is the negative, so if you have actually heard about Yemen in the news recently, they probably didn't show you the old walled city of Shibam. Dating to the 16^th Century, the city is known as the Manhattan of the Desert, because of its ancient mud brick skyscrapers. Below are a few photos of Shibam and Sana'a, courtesy of http://www.traveladventures.com/

The news probably didn't share with you the old city of Sana’a, where 103 mosques, 14 traditional bath houses and more than 6,000 houses dating back a thousand years still stand.

Sometimes we need to get beyond the trouble and negative stories to see the jewels that exist in this world.