Sana'a, the "well-fortified city", has had a colourful history witch probably dates back over 2,000 years. The city was destroyed again and again, so most of the oldest part of this capital dates back only to the past two centuries.

Together with the splendid mosques and bazaars behind its high walls, it is, above ail, the 6,000 tall houses made of stone and mud bricks, with their rich stucco ornamentation, which shape the face of this Yemeni heritage — as called for in the 1972 UNESCO Convention — means more though than just restoring the fabric of the historical buildings. It also means maintaining the traditional handicrafts and preserving and cataloguing such great cultural documents as the 40,000 fragments of old Koranic manuscripts which were found in the city's Great Mosque.