ABSTRACT
LUDOVICO DI VARTHEMA. 79 situated on the top of a very large mountain, and is ex tremely strong. The Sultan encamped before with 80,000 men for eight months in order to capture it, but could only gain it by capitulation.1 The walls of this city are of earth, of the height of ten braza, and twenty braza temperate.” Ibn Batata merely says “ it is a large and well-built city.” The Rev. Mr. Stern, who visited Sanaa in 1856, estimates the population at about 40,000 inhabitants, of whom 20,000 are Muhammedans, and 18,000 Jews. Niebuhr gives a plan and a detailed description o f the city in his Voyage en Arable, vol. i. pp. 326-329.
