Taiz

Taiz sits under the sheer wall of Jabal Sabir in the southern highlands and was the capital of the Rasulid dynasty, whose sultans built the finest mosques in Yemen outside Sana'a. The Ashrafiya, with its twin white minarets and ribbed domes, stands on the slope above the old town and is the building the city is known for. The Cairo Citadel occupies a spur higher still. Taiz has long been the country's most educated and commercially minded city, and the coffee grown on Jabal Sabir is among the best in Yemen. The city climbs steeply, and the mosques sit well above the market.