Usually hostages are treated like honored guests and released unharmed, but in 1998, four Westerners were killed during a botched rescue attempt.

So, a tour outside the capital Sana'a to Marib, for instance, where the most important archeological heritages in Yemen for the Queen of Sheba - who is believed to have ruled over an empire of myrrh and frankincense - requires extreme patience.

Tribes, including some in Marib, have had a strained relationship with central government for decades.

Yet, Yemen is still a charming country to visit, a land of fascinating mountains, verdant valleys and barren deserts, but its enemies want to destroy such a heaven, Minister of Tourism Nabil al-Faqeeh said.

After cases of abducting tourists, the optimal way now to tour safely Yemen has become in a group. Officially written permits are required by tour operators to leave the capital, Sana'a, as they can arrange for transport.

The security will not send armed escorts, if only a few are traveling, until it makes sure that there are plenty of tourists heading in the same direction on the same day - meant to protect western tourists from being kidnapped.

Threats against tourists trespassed the kidnapping to terrorist attacks. Security is discovered to be weak and going out in groups failed. President Saleh himself said after the attack that the security did not think the threats will catch tourists.

"Everything went upside down," explains Ahmed Salim, owner of a tourism company in Marib. "Tourism is the backbone of economy here, but the challenge is how to get the trust of tourists over again."

Yemen has been trying to make the Queen of Sheba temple, known for its columns marking the entrance, a major tourist attraction, especially after it was renovated several years ago.

Marib, which is home to four powerful tribes with more than 70 branches, has earned a reputation for being wild and has been known to be a hotbed of support for al-Qaida.

"In Marib, all hotels are not the perfect places to relax," says one of soldiers in yellow and brownish camouflage fatigue as he stationed at the gate of a main hotel here.

"If the hotel was left unguarded, tribesmen could easily grab tourists from their beds or may al-Qaeda comes to blow it up."

Western tourists are eager to come to Yemen, which is one of the oldest continuously inhabited regions in the world, according to the Bible and Old Testament and holy Koran, but the uncomfortable relations between the government and tribes on one hand, and al-Qaeda's deadly threats on the other hand both stand as a barrier against that.

According to Yemen's folklore, Sana'a was built by the eldest son of Prophet Noah "Shem" or "Sam" in Arabic; it may also have been the town of 'Azal' described in the Old Testament. To this day, the capital Sana'a is nicknamed "Sam City."

At the east of Sana'a, about 150 kilometers, lies another city connected with a Biblical character - Marib, capital of Sheba, or Saba, the mightiest kingdom of ancient Arabia, and the most famous archaeological site in modern Yemen.

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