The Ochre Land overwhelms us with fascinating and unprecedented photographs of the Republic of Yemen, a country situated in the South West of the Arabian Peninsula. A mountainous land bordered by the great Arabian desert Rub al Khali (Empty Quarter), the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. The country is known for its wonderful architecture especially in the capital San'a’, the carefully maintained terraces along the steep slopes of the western wadi’s and its population of fierce tribal warriors and their women passing by in colourful sitharas.
The last twenty years the country has gone through a turbulent period. The unification of the two former republics, the Yemen Arab Republic and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen in May 1990, the return of thousands of immigrant workers during the first Gulf War in the same year followed by increasing poverty, a civil war in 1994 and severe flash-floods in 1996 and 2008. Recently the country has been in the focus of the worldnews by reports of serious armed conflicts in the North, separatist movements in the South and an increase in unsafe areas in the East.
Charles Dufour lived and worked in the Yemen Arab Republic in the years 1985 -1990. He was involved in project management and fieldwork related to studies aimed at solving the threatening shortage of fresh water. He traveled widely around the country, visiting places hardly anybody ever visited before. The country from which Bilqis, Queen of Sheba, set out to meet King Solomon and which was named Arabia Felix by the ancient Romans. A fertile haven in a vast hostile world of mountains and deserts.
The photographs the author presents in this book are a splendid testimony of this savage and beautiful country and its people in a time the country was still secluded.