Sana'a

Sana'a, capital city of the Republic of Yemen, in Sana’a Province, on a plateau north-east of the port of Al Ḩudaydah. Sana’a is the commercial centre of a fruit-growing region. It is divided into two sections with the junction formed by the palace of the former imams (rulers) of Yemen. The eastern section, or old city—a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986—has several mosques and a market where jewellery, silver and leather goods, silk, and carpets are manufactured and sold. The western section is residential. Sana’a University (1970) is in the city. Sana’a first became important in the 4th century ad, in the kingdom of an ancient Arabian people, the Himyarites. The city was included in the Muslim caliphate in 632, and it came under the control of the Ottoman Empire in the 1870s. It first became the capital of an independent Yemen after the Turks were defeated in World War I. Formerly the capital of the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR), Sana’a became capital of the Republic of Yemen when the YAR merged with the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1990. Population 1,469,000 (2003 estimate).