Sana'a or Sanaa is the capital city of Yemen and one of the oldest inhabited cities in the whole world. It is also one of the highest, because of its 2.300 meters altitude. With a population of over one million inhabitans Sanaa is Yemen’s largest city.
The oldest written references about Sanaa's existence were found in inscriptions which date to the first century AD. The history says that the city was the capital of the Himyarite kingdom. During the reign of King Yousuf Athar, the last of the Himyarite kings, Sanaa was also the capital of Ethiopia. During the history Yemen fell twice under the rule of the Ottomans and so Sanaa became first the capital Ottoman wilayah and then of Imam Yahaya, who ruled North Yemen.
Sanaa recurrently assumed an important status and that is why all Yemenite States competed to control it. In 1962 the city became after the revolution the capital of the Yemen Arab Republic.
The old fortified city was declared a World Heritage City in 1986. It has been inhabited for more than 2.500 years and some of the buildings are over 1400 years old. The ancient city is surrounded by great walls and it has more than 100 mosques, 12 baths and 6.500 houses.
The Salt Market (Suq al - Milh) is the most popular attraction, because of its bread, spices, cotton, raisins, pottery, silverware, antiques (fake and real), etc. Jami’ al – Kabir is one of the oldest mosque in the Muslim world. The Yemen gate (Bab al - Yaman) is the entry point through the walls and has more than 1000 years. Sanaa was declared as the Arab Cultural Capital of the year 2004.
Photo source: ArtLine.ro
A.V.
artline.ro editor
