Building terraces on a steep slope is incredibly clever engineering. Each step-shaped field is held up by a low stone wall, which stops rainwater and soil from washing downhill. This means farmers can grow crops on land that would otherwise be too steep to use at all. The terraces of Mahweet have been here so long that they have become part of the natural-looking landscape.
The farms grow coffee, sorghum (a grain similar to wheat), grapes, and vegetables. Coffee is especially important — Yemen is one of the original homes of coffee, and coffee plants have been grown in these mountain terraces for hundreds of years. The coffee cherries ripen red in the cool mountain air, and the beans inside are dried and roasted to make what traders once called 'Mocha' coffee (named after the Yemeni port of Al-Makha).
Life in the mountain villages of Mahweet involves the whole family in farming. Children learn from a young age how to tend the terraces, fix the stone walls after heavy rain, and harvest the coffee cherries by hand. Village houses are built into the mountain itself, often with the ground floor used for animals and upper floors for people.
The terraced landscapes of Yemen are recognised worldwide as a brilliant example of how humans can adapt to their environment. Engineers and designers from other countries study these ancient terraces to learn how traditional farmers solved difficult problems without any modern machinery.