es (6000 to
10,500 feet or 2000 to 3200 meters) is Yemen, rich in its soil of
disintegrated trap rock, adequately watered by the dash of the southwest
monsoons against its towering ridges; but practically the whole country
is atilt. Consequently the mountains have been terraced from the base
often up to 6000 feet. The country presents the aspect of vast
agricultural amphitheaters, in which the narrow paths of ancient paving
zigzag up and up through successive zones of production. Here is a wide
range of fruits--oranges, lemons, figs, dates, bananas and coffee; then
apricots, apples, plums, grapes, quinces, peaches, together with grains
of various zonal distribution, such as millet, maize, wheat and barley.
The terrace walls are from five to eight feet high, but toward the top
of the mountains they often increase to fifteen feet. Though laid
without mortar, they are kept in perfect repair. Reservoirs filled with
water from the two rainy seasons, supply the irrigation channels.[1271] In
the narrow valleys of the Nejd plateau in central Arabia and on the
mountain slopes of Oman are found the same irrigated gardens and
terraced plantations. This laborious tillage underlay the prosperity of
the ancient Sabaean monarchy of Yemen, as it explains the population of
35,000 souls who occupy the modern capital of Sanaa, located at an
altitude of 7600 feet (2317 meters).[1272]

[Sidenote: In the Himalayas.]

Turning eastward, we find terrace agriculture widely distributed in
Himalayan lands. The steep mountain sides of the Vale of Kashmir are
cultivated thus to a considerable height. The terraces are irrigated by
contour channels constructed along the hillsides, which bring the water
for miles from distant snow-fed streams. Their shelf-like fields are
green with fruit orchards and almond groves, with vineyards and grain
fields.[1273] The terraced slopes about the Himalayan hill-station of
Simla (elevation 7100 to 8000 feet) feed the summer population of
English, who there take refuge from the deadly heat of the plains. The
mountain sections of the native states of Nepal and Bhutan present the
view of slopes cut into gigantic stairs, each step a field of waving
rice kept saturated by irrigating streams from abundant mountain
springs. Farther north, where Himalayas and Hindu Kush meet, terrace
agriculture is combined with irrigation in the high Gilgit valleys, and
farther still along that mere gash running down from the Pamir dome,