In his book The Lost Ark of the Covenant ( 2008 ), Parfitt also suggests that the Ark was taken to Arabia following the events depicted in the Second Book of Maccabees, and cites Arabic sources which maintain it was brought in distant times to Yemen.

Eritrea also has very tense relations with all of its neighbors: Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Somalia and Djibouti.

Al-Sufi also identified the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is visible from Yemen, though not from Isfahan ; it was not seen by Europeans until Magellan's voyage in the 16th century.

Although his writings on Jewish law and ethics were met with acclaim and gratitude from most Jews even as far off as Spain, Iraq and Yemen, and he rose to be the revered head of the Jewish community in Egypt, there were also vociferous critics of some of his rulings and other writings particularly in Spain.

: See also Castes in Yemen

Yemen also served as an emergency territory, to which Saladin could flee in the event of an invasion by Nur ad-Din.

From this base, Sulayman Pasha managed to take control of the whole country of Yemen, also taking Sa ' na.

Due to its proximity to the oil-rich Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the nation is also believed to contain substantial unexploited reserves of oil.

See also: Aden, Aden Protectorate, Federation of South Arabia, Hadhramaut, and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen

In 2009, armed insurgency also resumed in southern Yemen, led by South Yemen Movement successors.

However, relations have also been tense in recent years, particularly for the alleged Iranian support to Houthi rebels in Yemen, as part of the Sa ' dah insurgency.

Somalia has also over the centuries seen successive waves of immigration from Yemen, with Hadhrami settlers being instrumental in helping to consolidate the Muslim community in the coastal Banaadir region in particular.

Yemen is also a member of the following organizations:

Yemen is also a party to environmental conventions on Biodiversity, Desertification, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, and Ozone Layer Protection.

The current flags of Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen are also based on the Arab Liberation Flag of horizontal red, white, and black bands.

The flag of Yemen | flag of the former Yemen Arab Republic also looked like the UAR's flag, due largely to Egypt's support for the North Yemeni Revolution of 1962, and North Yemen's former membership of the United Arab States ( 1958 – 1961 ).

The list also includes a considerable number of states that ceased to exist during the 1990s, most notably the German Democratic Republic, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Democratic Yemen, People's Republic of Kampuchea ( today: Cambodia ) and Zaire ( today: Democratic Republic of the Congo ).

Care should also be taken to avoid minefields left over from Yemen ’ s civil wars.

The USCG has also provided 26 mobile training team visits and 54 resident training slots in USCG schools to the Yemen Coast Guard .”

The Bab-el-Mandeb ( variously transliterated Mandab or Mandib, and with article " el -" given also as " al -", with or without connecting dashes ) meaning " Gate of Grief " in Arabic ( باب المندب ), is a strait located between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, Djibouti and Eritrea, north of Somalia, in the Horn of Africa, and connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

The Bab-el-Mandab is also a sub-region in the Arab League, which includes Djibouti, Yemen, Somalia and the Comoros Islands.

This haplogroup, rare in Europe, has its highest concentration in Ethiopia and in the Near East ( Jordan, Yemen ).

A 2008 New York Times report claims that Yemen has over 1 million of these discriminated and ostracized Al-Akhdam people, that is about 5 percent of Yemen population.

Its advantages are most pronounced when the receiving country applies unprofitable exchange rate regulations ( as has been the case for many typical receiving countries such as Pakistan or Egypt ) or when the banking system in the receiving country is less complex ( e. g. due to differences in legal environment in places such as Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia ).

The UNCCD has 194 country Parties: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, the People's Republic of China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d ' Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, European Union, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, the Republic of Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Yemen ’ s population has more than doubled since 1975 and has grown approximately 35 percent since the 1994 census, making Yemen the second most populous country on the Arabian Peninsula.

Despite an increase of 14 years in the last decade, life expectancy at birth in Yemen has remained low compared with other developing countries — 60. 6 years for males and 64. 5 years for females, or 62. 5 years overall.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been head of state in Unified Yemen since 1990 ( since 1978 in North Yemen ) and was democratically elected in 1999.

Since unification, the economy has been forced to sustain the consequences of Yemen ’ s support for Iraq during the 1990 – 91 Persian Gulf War: Saudi Arabia expelled almost 1 million Yemeni workers, and both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait significantly reduced economic aid to Yemen.

As a consequence, for the past 10 years Yemen has relied heavily on aid from multilateral agencies to sustain its economy.

A key component of the US $ 2. 3 billion package — US $ 300 million in concessional financing — has been withheld pending renewal of Yemen ’ s PRGF with the IMF, which is currently under negotiation.

The number of military personnel in Yemen is relatively high ; in sum, Yemen has the second largest military force on the Arabian Peninsula after Saudi Arabia.

By 2012 Yemen now has 401, 000 active personnel.

Yemen ’ s defense spending has historically been one of the government ’ s three largest expenditures and is expected to remain high as a result of the reinstatement of conscription and security threats posed by terrorism and tribal conflict.

Yemen ’ s paramilitary force has about 71, 000 troops.

Yemen has acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has stressed the need to render the Middle East region free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.

Eritrea has half, while Yemen has half.

Lemba tradition maintains that the Ark spent some time in Sena in Yemen.

Though there is little evidence supporting Aksumite control of the region at that time, his title, which includes king of Saba and Salhen, Himyar and Dhu-Raydan ( all in modern-day Yemen ), along with gold Aksumite coins with the inscriptions, " king of the Habshat " or " Habashite ," indicate that Aksum might have retained some legal or actual footing in the area.

Historically, some theocratic Islamic states known as imamates have been led by imams as head of state, such as in what is now Oman, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia.

It is known that some Khazars, Edomites, and Ethiopians, as well as many Arabs, particularly in Yemen before, converted to Judaism in the past ; today people all over the world convert to Judaism.

Currently, Yemen has partial observer status on some GCC committees, and observers believe that full membership is unlikely.

In West Asia, during Sassanid Empire, some Persians established colonies in Yemen and Oman.

The ministry of Telecom & IT of Yemen declared some new statistics of 6. 271 million mobile subscribers by 2008.

Modern archaeological evidence increasingly supports Sheba being located in modern Yemen at or near the site of the famous Marib Dam, which was first built in 5 century BC They may have expanded at some point from Arabia into Africa to found trading posts in the lands currently called Eritrea and Somalia

There appears to be some evidence for the presence of matrilineality in pre-Islamic Arabia, in a very limited number of the Arabian peoples ( first of all among the Amirites of Yemen, and among some strata of Nabateans in Northern Arabia ); on the other hand, there does not seem to be any reliable evidence for the presence of matrilineality in Islamic Arabia, although the Fatimid Caliphate claimed succession from the Islamic Prophet Mohammad via his daughter Fatima.

According to some Islamic sources, such as al-Tabari, Ibn Kathir and al-Tha ' labi, Cain migrated to Yemen.

Frontline cited sources as saying that " O ' Neill's removal from the scene in Yemen may have seriously limited the Cole investigation ," and some have speculated that if Bodine had not blocked O ' Neill's return, the September 11 plot might have been foiled.

In Yemen and some parts of the Levant, Jews also lived in rural towns.

The major ( relative ) exceptions are some poor countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and some Middle Eastern countries, which are poor or affected by government policy or civil strife, notably Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Yemen and Afghanistan.

In addition, several of the army's best battalions had been transferred to Yemen to face the ongoing rebellion there, and in the summer of 1912, the Ottoman High Command made the disastrous decision to dismiss some 70, 000 mobilized troops.

Diodorus Siculus ( book ii ) described them as a strong tribe of some 10, 000 warriors, pre-eminent among the nomads of Arabia, eschewing agriculture, fixed houses, and the use of wine, but adding to pastoral pursuits a profitable trade with the seaports in frankincense, myrrh and spices from Arabia Felix ( today's Yemen ), as well as a trade with Egypt in bitumen from the Dead Sea.

Most of the Jewish immigrants came from Russia, escaping the pogroms, while some arrived from Yemen.

It stretches some 300 km along the southern Red Sea coast, just north of Yemen.

" In February 2007 the Arab Times reported that the “ Saudis have been quietly pursuing an $ 8. 5 billion project to fence off the full length of its porous border with Yemen for some years ”.

Henna is also common in some gulf states, specially Yemen, where the night before the wedding night is dedicated to decorating the bride with henna, and called " Henna night ".

An early attempt was made to introduce some direction to the nascent national economy by the establishment of a Yemen trading company.