Today we head to Yemen, the most untouched corner of Arabia. Yemen as an official country formed relatively recently in 1990 from the unification of North Yemen, the Yemen Arab Republic and South Yemen, the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.

Yemen is a lot older than this though, Yemen’s capital Sana’a is one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities at over 2500 years old. This is evident as Yemen is filled with beautiful traditional buildings built from sun-dried mud bricks. Yemen’s architecture is simply breathtaking, and from what I can see much of Yemen looks like it’s been untouched in centuries.

Sadly this is where the good news ends on our visit to Yemen. Yemen has the lowest Human Development Index out of all non-African countries and since the Aran Spring in 2011 Yemen has been in perpetual crisis. With large parts of the country under Houthi rebel control and other groups opposing the Yemeni government, the country is effectively in a brutal civil war. 

What’s worse is Yemen is experiencing the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Famine, cholera outbreaks and drought have killed more than 85,000 children. Sana’a is currently at risk of becoming the first capital in the world to run out of a viable water supply as Yemen's natural water sources are depleted.

Things really change in Yemen fast enough - I genuinely hope peace is restored quickly. Hopefully one day Yemen can once again regain its nickname - Arabia Felix or “Happy Arabia”.

If you want to learn more about Yemen, or specifically the isolated Yemeni island of Socotra, I recommend watching Wendover’s documentary about Socotra: