Thorn Tree Posts Postcards Scoop Articles Related Weblinks Environment Yemen is bounded to its north by Saudi Arabia, and to the east by Oman. In these high areas you can still find active volcanoes and hot springs. The sands of the great Arabian desert pour into the country from the north and stretch down to the southern coast. Two-thirds of Yemen is uninhabited. Yemen's flora and fauna have been all but wiped out by the combination of over-cultivation, deforestation and desertification.
More rain falls in the foothills, and a few evergreen plants such as palms and acacias grow there.
Tropical plants grow in the mountains' higher reaches, including commercial plantations of tropical fruits, while the highest slopes have been cultivated by coffee and qat growers. The plateaux have been turned over to sorghum, vegetable and spice growers. About the only creatures you're likely to see are birds migrating to and from east Africa. Yemn is the least sandy place on the Arabian peninsula, thanks to the the twice-yearly monsoon winds which dump huge quantities of water on the country. The wet season runs from March to May and from July to August, while the highest temperatures are between June and August.