SANA (SENA'A), a town of Yemen, south-western Arabia, situated in 55° 22' N. and 44° 1o' E. It is placed in a broad depression, running locally nearly north and south, on the lofty uptilted western edge of the great Arabian land-block. It is 7,25o ft. above sea-level, and is connected with its chief port, Hodeida (q.v.), on the Red sea, by a road which crosses the Karn al Wa'l pass (over 9,00o ft.), 25 m. W. of the city, and then follows the plateau steps down to the coast. The population of Sana is estimated at between 20,000 and 25,00o.
Early traditions of ancient Sana connect it with the old king dom of Himyar. Its early name was Azal, possibly associated with Uzal of Gen. x. 27. A Syriac writer of the 6th century mentions a Himyarite nation of Auzalites. Its later name, sig nifying "fortified," is associated with the Abyssinian conquerors of Yemen. Sana was the capital of the Abyssinian, Abraha (c.
The town consists of three parts: (I) The Medina, the old city, now the Arab quarter, on the east, containing the principal mosques. Here also, at its south-east corner, is the citadel el Kasr.
On the crest of Jebel Nukum (2,00o ft. above the valley) are the ruins of the old fort of el Birash, and the Mutawakkil, for merly containing the palace of the imams, covering its western face; (2) the Bir Azab, west of the city, the residential area; and (3), on the extreme west, the Ka'el Yahud, or Jewish quarter. The
city, with the Kasr and Mutawakkil, is surrounded by a lofty and thick wall. The Bir Azab and Ka'el Yahud are enclosed in a similar wall, but of more recent construction, connected with that of the city by the Mutawakkil, the whole forming a rough figure eight, some 22 m. long from east to west and a m. in breadth. The walls are pierced by eight gates. The city itself has narrow, paved streets, with massive flat-roofed houses of several storeys.
The Jami 'Masjid, or principal mosque, with a model of the Ka'ba at Mecca in the centre, stands on the site of the Christian church built by Abraha (see above). Among the other mosques, of which there are 48 in all, that of Salah ed din is one of the finest. Ruins alone remain of the Kasr Ghumdan and other an cient buildings, whose splendours were sung by the poets of the early days of Islam.
The neighbourhood of Sana suffers from a lack of water, but, in places where this is brought from the hill streams on the west, fields of barley and lucerne and market gardens are seen, particularly at Randa, a suburb 6 m. N. of the town, and in the deep gorges of the Wadi Dhahr and Wadi Hadda, the terraced orchards of which are celebrated for their fine fruit trees. The water supply of the town is derived from numerous wells and from the Ghail Aswad, a small canal.