The soil, treasured for centuries, turns steep Yemini slopes into fertile and productive land. Coffee grown here was served at London’s first coffee house in 1652
Photograph: Arne Hodalic/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Arne Hodalic/Getty Imagesou always know you are about to see something interesting when the driver of your vehicle removes his shoes and firmly grasps the foot pedals with a powerful set of calloused toes. I was new to Yemen and had no idea what to expect. All I could see was that we were on a stony mountain plateau rushing towards a cliff edge in a Toyota pickup truck that no one had remembered to service and MOT.
We stopped to do a three-point turn around a vertiginous hairpin bend and I jumped out to admire the view. Then I got my first look at what is one of the world’s supreme human creations: the Yemeni terraces. Stacked from summit to valley bottom, curling around the contours, a staggering achievement of communal effort replicated throughout the mountain chain that runs from the Saudi border almost to the southern point of Arabia at Aden.
Farmers hold conversations with friends who might be just 100 metres away on a terrace across the valley, but several hours walk apart
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