Yemen--Geography
CIA FactbookThe World Factbook 1993: Yemen Geography

Location: Middle East, along the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, south of Saudi Arabia

Area: total area: 527,970 km2 land area: 527,970 km2 comparative area: slightly larger than twice the size of Wyoming

note: includes Perim, Socotra, the former Yemen Arab Republic (YAR or North Yemen), and the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY or South Yemen)

Land boundaries: total 1,746 km, Oman 288 km, Saudi Arabia 1,458 km

Coastline: 1,906 km

Maritime claims: contiguous zone: 18 nm in the North 24 nm in the South continental shelf: 200 m depth in the North 200 nm in the South or to the edge of the continental margin exclusive economic zone: 200 nm territorial sea: 12 nm

International disputes: undefined section of boundary with Saudi Arabia; Administrative Line with Oman; a treaty with Oman to settle the Yemeni-Omani boundary was ratified in December 1992

Climate: mostly desert; hot and humid along west coast; temperate in western mountains affected by seasonal monsoon; extraordinarily hot, dry, harsh desert in east

Terrain: narrow coastal plain backed by flat-topped hills and rugged mountains; dissected upland desert plains in center slope into the desert interior of the Arabian Peninsula

Natural resources: petroleum, fish, rock salt, marble, small deposits of coal, gold, lead, nickel, and copper, fertile soil in west

Land use: arable land: 6% permanent crops: 0% meadows and pastures: 30% forest and woodland: 7% other: 57%

Irrigated land: 3,100 km2 (1989 est.)

Environment: subject to sand and dust storms in summer; scarcity of natural freshwater resources; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification

Note: controls Bab el Mandeb, the strait linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, one of world's most active shipping lanes