History & Civilisations

Yemen, land of the kingdom of Sheba

Roughly the size of France, Yemen — with its mountains and deserts, its barely unearthed prehistoric remains and buried cities — has long fascinated Western explorers. Mentioned in the Bible and coveted by conquerors, particularly the Romans, Yemen was still considered a true “terra incognita” barely twenty years ago. Today, although the country remains deeply mysterious, archaeological excavations have shed light on much of its ancient history. This film traces the story of a people whose development and evolution have, since the beginning, been shaped by the country’s geographical location. It is a journey back through ancient times in search of the origins of a civilization born more than three thousand years ago in the southern Arabian Peninsula, in a land once known as “Arabia Felix” — Happy Arabia.