Sanaá

Sanaá (Arabic: ‫ﺻﻨﻌﺎﺀ‬, Romanization: Ṣan‘ā’, also known as Sana or Sana'a), population 954,448 (1994), is the capital of Yemen. It is the center of a grape growing region. Sanaá has been settled from pre-Islamic times; it was under Ethiopian rule in the 6th century. The city was occupied several times by Turkey. After 1918, when Yemen's independence was reestablished, Sanaá became its capital. The capital was moved to Taiz in 1948, but returned to Sanaá in 1962.

The city is an Islamic cultural center, and there is a Muslim university and many mosques.