Aden

Aden is a home and a place for ships, and in Arabic the word "Aden" means residence, and it is said "Aden Al-Balad", meaning the settlement of the country. Among the sayings of geographers about the city: Yaqut al-Hamwi said: "It is a famous city on the coast of the Indian Sea, towards the Yemen, and it is poor, with no water or pasture. They drink from a spring between it and Aden, about a distance of about today, and despite that, it is bad, except that this place is the port for Indian ships, and merchants gather there for that reason, as it is a town of trade." And it is added to Abyan, which is the opposite of Aden in its entirety. Ibn Manzur said: "It is a country on the edge of the sea in the furthest part of Yemen." Ibn Khaldun said: "This Aden is one of the most fortified cities in Yemen, and it is on the bank of the Indian Sea. …

Aden is an ancient port and was mentioned by the Greeks under the name (Ancient Greek: Αραβία Εμπόριον, romanised: Arabia Emporion), which means an Arabic trade port. 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 Eudaemon (Ancient Greek: Ευδαίμων, meaning "blissful, prosperous") 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 at this stage. …

Aden is located on the coast of the Gulf of Aden, and is about 363 kilometres from the capital, Sanaa. It is located between latitudes 47 and 12 north of the equator, and at an altitude of 6 metres above sea level. It is surrounded by Lahj Governorate to the north and east, and the Governorate of Abyan is to the northwest. Aden has an airport (Aden International Airport), a seaport (the port of Aden), and has land routes from the north linking it to Hajj, Abyan and Taiz. Aden is a coastal city; it overlooks the Gulf of Aden, which opens to the Indian Ocean. The shape of the city of Aden in the form of two peninsulas helped this factor to make the city of Aden unique in this particularity, which clearly affected the occurrence of the phenomenon of land and sea breezes. Which occurs due to air exchange between land and water during the day and night. …