Welcome to Marib ... Goodbye

Welcome to Marib, Yemen: the land that Sheba forgot. Or at least most of the modern world, until Al Qaeda and its putative successors made it a tableau for terrorism, civil wars, kidnappings and death. It is here, in Yemen, where the Queen of Sheba came from; where Noah's son Shem settled after the Ark did, too; where Osama bin Laden's family originated; where the German called home, a man who had had no reason to live finally found one while searching for death. Goodbye.