Yemen's landscape of contrasts

Yemen is only for the intrepid, says Kevin Rushby in the Guardian. Ever since the late 1990s, when there was a spate of violent attacks on tourists there, the Foreign Office has advised against travel to the country. But a few Westerners keep coming, drawn above all by its landscape and architecture, both "among the most stunning on earth".

In mountainous regions like the Jebel Haraz, mist gathers around the cool heights, where whole towns teeter on "improbable crags", their walls "white-washed with bright zigzag patterns". But the valleys, thousands of feet below, are so hot that bananas grow in profusion and African birds like the paradise flycatcher can be seen, "flitting among strands of rustling bamboo".

Wild Frontiers (0207 736 3968) has a 14-day tour of Yemen for £2,295.