Sanaa, spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate.
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Sanaa, spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate.
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Name Sanaa is probably derived from the Sabaic root sn?, meaning "well-fortified".
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Al-Hamdani wrote that Sanaa was walled by the Sabaeans under their ruler Sha'r Awtar, who arguably built the Ghumdan Palace in the city.
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Appropriately enough for a town whose name means "well-fortified", Sanaa appears to have been an important military center under the Sabaeans.
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The city of Sanaa regularly regained an important status, and all Yemenite States competed to control it.
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In 1062 Sanaa was taken over by the Sulayhid dynasty led by Ali al-Sulayhi and his wife, the popular Queen Asma.
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Sanaa made the city capital of his relatively small kingdom, which included the Haraz Mountains.
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Sanaa's withdrew from Sanaa, transferring the Sulayhid capital to Jibla, where she ruled much of Yemen from 1067 to 1138.
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However, Ayyubid control of Sanaa was never very consistent, and they only occasionally exercised direct authority over the city.
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In Sanaa, city planning was initiated for the first time, new roads were built, and schools and hospitals were established.
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That year, Sanaa was replaced with Ta'izz as capital following Ahmad's new residence there.
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Ahmad began a process of gradual economic and political liberalization, but by 1961 Sanaa was witnessing major demonstrations and riots demanding quicker reform and change.
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Instability in Sanaa continued due to continuing coups and political assassinations until the situation in the country stabilized in the late 1970s.
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Sanaa was chosen as the 2004 Arab Cultural Capital by the Arab League.
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On 21 May 2012, Sanaa was attacked by a suicide bomber, resulting in the deaths of 120 soldiers.
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In late 2017, another Battle of Sanaa broke out between the Houthis and forces loyal to former President Saleh, who was killed.
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Much of the Sanaa plain is drained by the Wadi al-Kharid, which flows northward, through the northeastern corner of the plain, towards al-Jawf, which is a broad wadi that drains the eastern part of the Yemeni highlands.
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Sanaa itself is located at the narrowest part of the plain, nestled between Jabal Nuqum to the east and the foothills of Jabal an-Nabi Shu'ayb, Yemen's tallest mountain, to the west.
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Parts of the Sanaa plain have signs of relatively recent volcanic activity, with volcanic cones and lava fields.
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Tower houses continue to be built in Sanaa, often using modern materials; often they are built from concrete block with decorative "veneers" of brick and stone.
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In recent decades, Sanaa has grown into a multipolar city, with various districts and suburbs serving as hubs of commercial, industrial, and social activity.
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An old Ottoman and Jewish quarter of Sanaa located to the west of the old city, Bi'r al-Azab was first mentioned in historical sources in 1627, in the Ghayat al-amanni of Yahya ibn al-Husayn.
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In 1983, as Sanaa experienced an explosion in population, the city was made into a governorate of its own, called Amanat al-Asimah, by Presidential Decree No 13.
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Sanaa has a rich musical tradition and is particularly renowned for the musical style called al-Ghina al-San'ani, or "the song of Sanaa", which dates back to the 14th century and was designated as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003.
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Sanaa has a higher concentration of hotels and restaurants than elsewhere in the country.
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In terms of jobs created, Sanaa is ahead of all other governorates in Yemen by a factor of three.
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The most recent crisis in Sanaa came in September 2019, leading to days-long lines at gas stations.
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Sanaa is relatively well educated among Yemeni cities, and much more than the country as a whole.
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Each of Sanaa's districts has its own educational district, with several government schools in each one.
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Sanaa University was established in 1970 with the goal of preparing Yemenis to work as teachers.
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In 2018, the total cost of damage to the health sector in Sanaa was estimated to be between 191 million and US$233 million.
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Sanaa has been hit hard by the ongoing cholera outbreak in Yemen since 2016, with Bani al-Harith District reporting the highest number of cases in January–August 2019.
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Transport in Sanaa is divided by gender, with a slight majority of male commuters using public transport and a similar majority of women travelling on foot.
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Public transport in Sanaa is primarily informal, with most vehicles being privately owned.
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Sanaa has an extensive road network, which is where most formal investment has taken place.
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Yemen is one of the world's most water-scarce countries, and Sanaa could be the first national capital in the world to completely exhaust its water supply.
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Household water in Sanaa was supplied by shallow wells, and the relative scarcity of water led to people using gray water for watering gardens.
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