Upper Yemen in the context of Hajjah

The Ethiopian Highlands (also called the Abyssinian Highlands) is a rugged mass of mountains extending from Ethiopia to Eritrea in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below 1,500 m (4,900 ft), while the summits reach heights of up to 4,550 m (14,930 ft). It is sometimes called the "Roof of Africa" due to its height and large area. Ethiopia is the only country in the region with such a high elevated surface. This elevated surface is bisected diagonally by the Great East African Rift System which extends from Syria to Mozambique across the East African Lakes. Most of the Ethiopian Highlands are part of central and northern Ethiopia, with the Eritrean Highlands as its northernmost portion. The Ethiopia-Yemen Continental Flood Basalts are shared between the Horn of Africa and highlands of Upper Yemen along with the cultural, historical, and genetic ties of the two regions on opposite ends of the Red Sea.

North Yemen (Arabic: اليمن الشمالي, romanized: al-Yaman al-šamāliyya) is a term used to describe the Kingdom of Yemen (1918–1962), the Yemen Arab Republic (1962–1990), and the regimes that preceded them and exercised sovereignty over that region of Yemen. Its capital was Sanaa from 1918 to 1948 and again from 1962 to 1990. Located in the southwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula, the area of the region (Upper Yemen) is 195,000 square kilometers, it used to have a population of about thirteen million people prior to the Yemeni unification. It was bordered to the north by Saudi Arabia, to the south and east by South Yemen, to the west by the Red Sea, and to Bab al-Mandab in the southwest.

North Yemen was admitted to the United Nations on September 30, 1947. In 1962, the country fought a bloody civil war that ended with the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of a republic in 1970. It was one of the predecessor states of the Republic of Yemen, alongside South Yemen, until its eventual unification in 1990.