Taiz (تَعِزّ) is a governorate of Yemen. The governorate's capital is Taiz, which is the third-largest city in Yemen. Today it is among the most important commercial centres in Yemen, owing to its proximity to rich farmland in the nation and to the important Red Sea port of Mocha. It also has an international airport, Taiz International Airport, with numerous services within Yemen and to neighbouring countries.
For such a small area, Taiz Governorate has an extraordinarily diverse geography. The western half of the governorate is part of the Tihamah coastal plain and has an exceedingly hot, humid and arid climate. The eastern half, however, is very mountainous, with the major peak being 3,070-metre-high Jabal Sabir, near Taiz city. These mountains trap the moisture created by an upper-level wind reversal between April and October, so that in the eastern half of the governorate annual rainfall increases from 200 millimetres (8 inches) in the foothills to probably more than 1,000 millimetres (40 inches) near Jebel Saber. Temperatures in the highlands remain high during the daytime, but at the highest elevations they can fall dramatically to -5 °C (23 °F) overnight.
