With its 23,495,361 people Yemen is the 48th largest country in the world by population. It is the 49th largest country by area with 527,968 square kilometers. North Yemen became independent of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. The British, who had set up a protectorate area around the southern port of Aden in the 19th century, withdrew in 1967 from what became South Yemen. Three years later, the southern government adopted a Marxist orientation. The massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis from the south to the north contributed to two decades of hostility between the states. The two countries were formally unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. A southern secessionist movement in 1994 was quickly subdued. In 2000, Saudi Arabia and Yemen agreed to a delimitation of their border.
Check out the recommended reading list below for great sources of information on Yemen.
Yemen: Dancing on the Heads of Snakes
Victoria Clark
Yemen (Bradt Travel Guide)
Daniel McLaughlin
Yemen: Jewel of Arabia
Charles Aithie
The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: An American Journalist in Yemen
Jennifer Steil
Motoring with Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea
Eric Hansen
Winning The Minds: Travels through the terrorist recruiting grounds of Yemen, Pakistan, and the Somali border
Francisco Martin-Rayo
The Lost World of Socotra: Yemen's Island Of Bliss
Richard Boggs
Yemen: Land and People
Sarah Searight
Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land
Tim MacKintosh-Smith
Lonely Planet Yemen
Pertti Hamalainen
