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Yemen (اليَمَن al-Yaman), officially known as the Yemeni Republic (الجمهورية اليمنية al-Jumhūriyyah al-Yamaniyyah), is an Arab country located in Western Asia, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. Yemen is the second largest country in the Arabian peninsula occupying 527,970 km2. It is boarded to the north by Saudi Arabia and to the east by Oman. The coastline stretches for about 2,000 km

Yemen is one of the oldest centers of civilization in the Near East. Its capital and largest city is Sana'a. Yemen's territory includes more than 200 islands, the largest of which is Socotra, about 354 km to the south of mainland Yemen. It is the only state in the Arabian Peninsula to have a purely republican form of government. Yemen was the first country in the Arabian peninsula to grant women the right to vote. Yemeni unification took place on 22 May 1990, when North Yemen was united with South Yemen, forming the Republic of Yemen.

The majority of Yemen's population is divided into tribal groups, especially in the northern areas of the country where 85% of local residents belong to various tribes There are also small groups of peoples of Turkish/Ottoman origin in urban areas. Yemen is a member of the United Nations, the Arab League, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Ali Abdullah Saleh was the first elected president of the reunified Yemen. Throughout its modern history, the country has undergone a long period of conflicts and civil wars, the last being the 2011 Yemeni uprising. Since the 1990s, the Houthis (an armed Zaydi Shia group) have launched an armed rebellion against the government coinciding with an Al-Qaeda insurgency and another separatist campaign in the south.

Etymology
One etymology derives Yemen from yamin, meaning "on the right side", as the south is on the right when facing the sunrise. Another derives Yemen from yumn, meaning "felicity", as the region is fertile. The Romans called it Arabia Felix (Happy Arabia) as opposed to Arabia Deserta (Deserted Arabia), which was their term for northern Arabia. Yemen was mentioned in Old South Arabian script as  Yamnat particularly after the unification of the four dynasties of ancient Yemen by the Himyarite kings and it literally means "the south-land".

History
Yemen has long existed at the crossroads of cultures. It linked some of the oldest centres of civilization in the Near East by virtue of its location in the Arabian peninsula. Large settlements existed in the mountain of northern Yemen As early as 5000 BC Little is known about ancient Yemen and how exactly the transtion from bronze age civilization to the ancient caravan kingdoms. This may be largely due to the official disgorgement of research into pre-islamic civilizations in Arabia

The Sabaean Kingdom came to existence from at least the eleventh century BC There were four major kingdoms in South Arabia, Saba,Hadramout,Qataban and Ma'in. Saba is believed to be biblical Sheba and on the other hand an uncertain number of smaller states. The Sabean rulers adopted the title Mukarrib generally thought to mean “unifier” Or a "priest-king" The role of the Mukarrib was to bring the various tribes under the kingdom and preside over them all The Sabaens built the Great Dam of Marib around 940 BC The dam was built to withstand the seasonal flash floods surging down the valley.

Between 700 - 680 BC, Mukarrib Karib'il Watar I changed his ruling title to king Saba enlarged its territory to include much of South Arabia Lack of water in the Arabian peninsula prevented the Sabaeans from unifying the entire peninsula; instead, they established various colonies to control trade routes. Evidence of Sabaean influence are found in Northern Ethiopia, where the South Arabian system of writing, religion and pantheon, and the South Arabian style of art and architecture was introduced  The Sabaean chief deity was El-Muqqah.