The Suq at Taiz
A market for the senses

Taiz's Suq was a colorful network of street shops, sidewalk vendors and back alley manufacturers. Blacksmiths hammered on scrap iron in the background while freshly roasted coffee filled the air. We followed our noses to the suq that sold spices, dried fish, peppers and anything else related to cooking. We saw one particular vendor who had just ground several pounds of Yemen's real coffee. Although coffee was discovered in Al-Mockka, Yemen exports almost all of its beans for European consumption. We were tired of the concoction made from coffee bean shells and ginger. Yemen beans were regarded as the best coffee in the world. It was a rare treat to finally taste some. The fertile wadis surrounding Taiz allow for a wide variety of tropical and sub-tropical fruits and vegetables to be grown and all of these fresh items eventually make their way to the large suq. The products are usually brought to a particular market or stand and these markets often are located on the street level, with additional residential space above. Many of the stands are owned by families with a very long history of having the same merchant space in the suq and of obtaining their goods from the same farmers for many generations. Refrigeration is not easy in Yemen's hot climate, especially when the electricity is often absent or unreliable. Usually the ingredients of a meal are bought in the suq just before the meal is prepared. This is perhaps why the food in Yemen is always so delicious, since the ingredients are always fresh. We wandered through the narrow streets and found ourselves in the part of the suq that sold cloth. Reels of colorful weaves betrayed a secret fashion underneath the outer, black robes and veils of Yemeni women. Yemeni homes were full of colorful fabric and this suq was quite busy. We met some tourists named David and Cynthia who were vacationing in Taiz from Great Britain. We exchanged stories and places to see. We all agreed that Yemen was a beautiful country. At the end of the food suq we passed through the fabric suq. We noticed that, correct to Islamic tradition, the designs did not depict any living things such as flowers or birds. Instead, there were complex and intricate patterns and colors that were pleasing to the eye and lifted the spirits. Before we left, we were invited to inspect a special shop that specialized in old silver, made by the talented Jewish silversmiths that once lived in Yemen. These were intricate objects of a rare beauty, made with unparalleled craftsmanship. We spent some time looking at these beautiful objects. [Click Here -- visit the shop.]