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Aden
KNOWLEDGE OF Aden
Aden (Arabic: عدن) is a city in Yemen, 105 miles (170 kilometers) East of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its 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 BCE. The modern harbour is on the other side of the peninsula. Aden now has a population of about 590,000 and is located at 12.779444° N 45.03667° E.
Aden consists of a number of small towns: Crater, the original port city, the industrial city known as Little Aden with its large oil refinery, and Madinat ash-Sha'b, the centre of government. Two suburbs, Khormaksar and Sheikh Othman, lie north of Crater, the old city, with the international airport situated between them. This is the former RAF Khormaksar. As Aden encloses the eastern side of the Port, Little Aden forms its mirror image, enclosing it on the western side. Little Aden became the site of the oil refinery and Tanker port. Both these last were operated by British Petroleum.
Aden was the capital of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen until that country's unification with the Yemen Arab Republic when it was declared a free trade zone. It gives its name to the Gulf of Aden.
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.
There seems thus, to have been little fortification at this stage. Although the pre-Islamic civilization of Himyar was capable of building large structures. 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 atribute the first fortification of Aden to Beni Zuree'a. The aim seems to have been twofold: the more obvious wish to keep hostile forces out but also to maintain revenue by controlling the movement of goods in and out - preventing smuggling. In its original form, some of this work was relatively feeble but after 1175 CE, rebuilding in a more solid form began.
On 19 January 1839 the British East India Company landed Royal Marines at Aden to stop attacks by pirates against British shipping to India. The port lies about equidistant from the Suez canal, Bombay, and Zanzibar, which were all important former British possessions. Aden had been 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.
Aden was ruled as part of British India until 1937, when it 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 ways, 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 consists of a number of small towns: Crater, the original port city, the industrial city known as Little Aden with its large oil refinery, and Madinat ash-Sha'b, the centre of government. Two suburbs, Khormaksar and Sheikh Othman, lie north of Crater, the old city, with the international airport situated between them. This is the former RAF Khormaksar. As Aden encloses the eastern side of the Port, Little Aden forms its mirror image, enclosing it on the western side. Little Aden became the site of the oil refinery and Tanker port. Both these last were operated by British Petroleum.
Aden was the capital of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen until that country's unification with the Yemen Arab Republic when it was declared a free trade zone. It gives its name to the Gulf of Aden.
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.
There seems thus, to have been little fortification at this stage. Although the pre-Islamic civilization of Himyar was capable of building large structures. 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 atribute the first fortification of Aden to Beni Zuree'a. The aim seems to have been twofold: the more obvious wish to keep hostile forces out but also to maintain revenue by controlling the movement of goods in and out - preventing smuggling. In its original form, some of this work was relatively feeble but after 1175 CE, rebuilding in a more solid form began.
On 19 January 1839 the British East India Company landed Royal Marines at Aden to stop attacks by pirates against British shipping to India. The port lies about equidistant from the Suez canal, Bombay, and Zanzibar, which were all important former British possessions. Aden had been 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.
Aden was ruled as part of British India until 1937, when it 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 ways, 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.
Chapi