Arabia Felix

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Arabia Felix (literally: Fertile/Happy Arabia; also Ancient Greek: Εὐδαίμων Ἀραβία, Eudaemon Arabia) was the Latin name previously used by geographers to describe South Arabia, or what is now Yemen.

The Latin term Arabia Felix was the Roman translation of the earlier Hellenistic Greek: Εὐδαίμων Ἀραβία, romanized: Eudaimon Arabia, attributed to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Felix has the meanings of both "fecund, fertile" and "happy, fortunate, blessed", this area being the best irrigated of the Arabian peninsula. Arabia Felix, referring to Yemen, was one of the three regions into which the Romans divided the peninsula: Arabia Deserta, Arabia Felix, and Arabia Petraea.

The French term L'Arabie Heureuse ("Happy Arabia") comes from a poor translation from Latin. One of the earliest such maps, dated 1654, was produced by the French cartographer Nicolas Sanson.