You always know you are about to witness something extraordinary when the driver of your vehicle removes his shoes and grips the foot pedals with his calloused toes. As I ventured through Yemen, I had no idea what awaited me. The landscape appeared to be a rugged mountain plateau, and our vehicle sped toward a cliff edge in a Toyota pickup truck that seemed to have been forgotten by maintenance.
The path ahead, marked by twin parallel tire tracks on the dusty mountain surface, took a sharp left, and the horizon suddenly disappeared into a hazy, bluish abyss. We were descending, bouncing and jolting with every turn.
We stopped to navigate a sharp hairpin bend, and I stepped out to take in the view. It was then that I saw what can be considered one of the world’s greatest human achievements: the Yemeni terraces. These terraces, carefully stacked from summit to valley floor, wind around the contours of the mountains. They stretch across the mountain chain that runs from the Saudi border to the southern tip of Arabia, near Aden.
Each terrace wall is a testament to the skill of the stone masons who crafted them, some of which stand as tall as a house, holding back a few meters of precious soil. The soil itself, painstakingly gathered and preserved for centuries, transforms the steep, otherwise inhospitable slopes into fertile, productive farmland. The coffee grown here, once traded through the port of Mokha, was served at London’s first coffee house in 1652, marking the beginning of coffee’s journey into European culture.
Everywhere you look, you can see the meticulous work that has gone into controlling and retaining not just soil, but water as well. Some stone cisterns are no larger than a bathtub, while others are vast, akin to Olympic-sized swimming pools, equipped with complex systems of access via steps and ledges.
In the spring, I walked through shady groves of coffee, almond, and khat trees on Jabal Sabir, a mountain near Ta’izz. There, farmers would converse with their neighbors across the valley, separated by just 100 meters, but hours of walking away. The terraces are not only a place for cultivation; they are also a final resting place. When someone dies, the entire village gathers at dawn to carry the body up the mountain and place it behind a stone wall. In a sense, the final act of life is to contribute to the land, whether through growing crops or nurturing the soil that sustains them.
Many of these terraces were already ancient when the 10th-century Arab scholar Abu Hasan al-Hamdani described them as one of the wonders of the world. Today, they remain a testament to generations of human effort and ingenuity. While some terraces have fallen into disrepair, many continue to be maintained. Their management of soil and water serves as a potent symbol of sustainability, environmental stewardship, and practicality. These terraces are not just an agricultural marvel; they are a living, breathing example of how human creativity and dedication can transform even the harshest landscapes into thriving ecosystems.
