Everything about Aden totally explained
Aden (;
Arabic: عدن [ˈʕɑdæn]) is a city in
Yemen, 170 kilometers east of
Bab-el-Mandeb.
Aden's ancient, natural
harbour lies in the crater of an extinct
volcano which now forms a
peninsula, joined to the mainland by a low
isthmus. This harbour, Front Bay, was first used by the ancient
Kingdom of Awsan between the 5th and 7th centuries BC. The modern harbour is on the other side of the peninsula. Aden now has a population of about 800,000 people, and is located at .
Aden consists of a number of distinct sub-centers:
Crater, the original port city;
Ma'alla, the modern port;
Tawahi, known as "Steamer Point" in colonial days; and the resorts of
Gold Mohur.
Khormaksar, located on the isthmus that connects Aden proper with the mainland, includes the city's diplomatic missions, the main offices of Aden University, and Aden International Airport--the former
RAF Khormaksar. On the mainland are the sub-centers of
Sheikh Othman, a former oasis area;
Al-Mansura, a town planned by the British; and
Madinat ash-Sha'b (formerly Madinat al-Itihad), the site designated as the capital of the
South Arabian Federation and now home to a large power/desalinization facility and additional faculties of Aden University.
Aden encloses the eastern side of a vast, natural harbor that comprises the modern port. The volcanic peninsula of Little Aden forms a near-mirror image, enclosing the harbor and port on the western side. Little Aden became the site of the oil refinery and tanker port. Both were established and operated by
British Petroleum until they were turned over to Yemeni government ownership and control in 1977.
Aden was the capital of the
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen until that country's unification with the
Yemen Arab Republic; on that occasion the city was declared a free trade zone.
Aden gives its name to the
Gulf of Aden.
History
Antiquity
A local legend in Yemen states that Aden may be as old as human history itself. Some also believe that
Cain and
Abel are buried somewhere in the city.
The port's convenient position on the sea route between
India and
Europe has made Aden desirable to rulers who sought to possess it at various times throughout history. Known as Arabian
Eudaemon in the 1st century BC, it was a transshipping point for the Red Sea trade, but fell on hard times when new shipping practices by-passed it and made the daring direct crossing to India in the 1st century AD, according to the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The same work describes Aden as 'a village by the shore', which would well describe the town of Crater while it was still little-developed. There is no mention of fortification but at this stage, Aden was more an island than a peninsula as the
isthmus (a
tombolo) wasn't then so developed as it's today.
Medieval
Although the pre-Islamic civilization of
Himyar was capable of building large structures, there seems to have been little fortification at this stage. Fortifications at Mareb and other places in Yemen and the Hadhramaut make it clear that it and the
Sabean culture were well capable of it. Thus watch towers, since destroyed, are possible. However, the Arab historians Ibn al Mojawir and Abu Makhramah attribute the first fortification of Aden to Beni Zuree'a. The aim seems to have been twofold: to keep hostile forces out and to maintain revenue by controlling the movement of goods--preventing smuggling. In its original form, some of this work was relatively feeble, but after 1175 AD, rebuilding in a more solid form began.
In 1421 Ming dynasty
Yongle Emperor ordered principal envoy grand eunuch Li Xing and grand eunuch Zhou Man of
Zheng He's fleet to convey an imperial edict with hats and robes to bestow on the king of Aden. The envoys boarded three treasure ships and set sail from Sumatra to the port of Aden. This event was recorded in the book Ying-yai Sheng-lan by
Ma Huan who accompanied the imperial envoy.
British rule
Muhsin bin Fadl of the nearby state of
Lahej ceded 194 km² (75 sq. miles) including Aden to the
British. On
19 January 1839, the
British East India Company landed
Royal Marines at Aden to occupy the territory and stop attacks by
pirates against British shipping to
India. The port lies about equidistant from the
Suez Canal,
Bombay (Mumbai), and
Zanzibar, which were all important former British possessions. Aden had been an
entrepôt and a way-station for seamen in the ancient world. There, supplies, particularly water, were replenished. So, in the mid-nineteenth century, it became necessary to replenish
coal and boiler water. Thus Aden acquired a coaling station at Steamer Point. Aden was to remain under British control until 1967.
Until 1937, Aden was ruled as part of
British India and was known as the
Aden Settlement. Its original territory was enlarged in 1857 by the 13 km² island of
Perim, in 1868 by the 73 km²
Khuriya Muriya Islands, and in 1915 by the 108 km² island of
Kamaran.
In 1937, the Settlement was detached from India and became the
Colony of Aden, a British
Crown colony. The change in government was a step towards the change in monetary units seen in the stamps illustrating this article. When the Indian Empire went its independent way, Indian rupees (divided into annas) were replaced in Aden by East African shillings. The
hinterland of Aden and
Hadhramaut were also loosely tied to Britain as the
Aden Protectorate which was overseen from Aden.
Aden's location also made it a useful entrepôt for
mail passing between places around the
Indian Ocean and Europe. Thus, a ship passing from Suez to
Bombay could leave mail for
Mombasa at Aden for collection. See
History of postage in Aden.
After the loss of the
Suez Canal in 1956, Aden became the main base in the region for the British.
Aden sent a team of two to the
1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in
Perth, Western Australia.
Little Aden 1955 to 1967
Little Aden is still dominated by the
oil refinery built for
British Petroleum. Little Aden was well known to seafarers for its tanker port with a very welcoming seaman's mission near to the BP Aden
tugs' jetties, complete with swimming pool and air conditioned bar. The accommodation areas for the refinery personnel were known by the original Arabic names of Bureika and Ghadir.
Bureika was wooden housing bunkhouses built to accommodate the thousands of skilled men and labourers imported to build the refinery, later converted to family housing, plus imported prefabricated houses "the Riley-Newsums" that are also to be found in parts of Australia (Woomera). Bureika also had a protected bathing area and Beach Club.
Ghaddir housing was stone built, largely from the local
granite quarry; much of this housing still stands today, now occupied by wealthier locals from Big Aden. Little Aden also has a local township and numerous picturesque fishing villages, including the Lobster Pots of Ghaddir. The army had extensive camps in Bureika and through Silent Valley in Falaise Camp, these successfully protected the refinery staff and facilities throughout the troubles, with only a very few exceptions. Schooling was provided for children from kindergarten age through to primary school, after that, children were bussed to The Isthmus School in Khormaksar, though this had to be stopped during the Aden Emergency.
Federation of South Arabia and the Aden Emergency
In order to stabilize Aden and the surrounding Aden Protectorate from the designs of
North Yemen, the British attempted to gradually unite the disparate states of the region in preparation for eventual independence. On
18 January 1963, the Colony of Aden was incorporated into the
Federation of Arab Emirates of the South against the wishes of much of the city's populace as the
State of Aden and the Federation was renamed the
Federation of South Arabia (FSA).
An insurgency against British rule known as the
Aden Emergency began with a grenade attack by the
National Liberation Front (NLF) against the British High Commissioner on
December 10,
1963, killing one person and injuring fifty, and a "state of emergency" was declared.
In 1964, Britain announced its intention to grant independence to the FSA in 1968, but that the British military would remain in Aden.
In January 1967, there were mass riots by the NLF and the rival Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY) supporters in the old Arab quarter of Aden town, which continued until mid February, despite the intervention of British troops. During the period there were many attacks on the troops, and an Aden Airlines
DC3 plane was destroyed in the air with no survivors.
On
November 30,
1967 the British finally pulled out, leaving Aden and the rest of the FSA under NLF control. The
Royal Marines, who had been the first British troops to occupy Aden in 1839, were the last to leave — with the exception of a Royal Engineer detachment.
Independence
Aden became the capital of the new
People's Republic of South Yemen which was renamed the
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1970. With the unification of
northern and southern Yemen in 1990, Aden was no longer a national capital but remained the capital of
Aden Governorate which covered an area similar to that of the Aden Colony.
On
December 29,
1992,
Al Qaeda conducted its first known
terrorist attack in Aden, bombing the
Gold Mohur Hotel [gəʊldmɔː], where U.S. servicemen were known to have been staying en route to
Somalia for
Operation Restore Hope. A Yemeni and an Austrian tourist died in the attack.
Aden was briefly the centre of the
secessionist
Democratic Republic of Yemen from
21 May 1994 but was reoccupied by
Republic of Yemen troops on
7 July 1994.
Members of al Qaeda attempted to bomb
USS The Sullivans at the port of Aden as part of the
2000 millennium attack plots. The boat that had the explosives in it sank, forcing the planned attack to be aborted.
The
USS Cole bombing occurred in Aden on
12 October 2000.
Main sights
Aden has a number of historical and natural sites of interest to visitors. These include:
- The Cisterns of Tawila - an ancient, water-cachement system located in the sub-center of Crater.
- Sira Fort
- The Aden Minaret
- The Palace of the Sultanate of Lahej/National Museum
- The Aden Military Museum
- The Rimbaud House
- The fortifications of Jebal Hadid and Jebal Shamsan
- The beaches of Aden and Little Aden
- Al-Aidaroos Mosque
- The Zoroastrian Temple
Transportation
The city is served by the
Aden International Airport, 9.5 kilometers away from the city.
Scheduled flights (as in December 2006):
Further Information
Get more info on 'Aden'.
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