Al Hudaydah

In Islamic chronicles, the name Hodeidah was first mentioned in the year 1454/55. The city's importance grew in the 1520s, when the Ottomans took over the Yemeni Tihāmah region. In the 1830s, Hodeidah was controlled by Ibrahim Pasha's troops, which turned over its administration to Sherif Husayn ibn Ali Haydar. In 1849, it became part of the Yemen Eyalet. The Malay writer Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir visited Hodeidah on his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1854, and describes the city in his account of the journey, mentioning that the custom of chewing khat was prevalent in the city at this time. During the 19th century, Hodeidah had a large slave market. The slaves came from the Oromia region of modern Ethiopia. …

Hodeidah is generally composed of a flat plain that gently slopes towards the sea. The elevated areas consist mainly of small sand dunes or remnants of inland masses. Geologically, this coastal plain is part of the Red Sea rift valley, covered by recent deposits, which can be divided into two categories, though it’s difficult to distinguish their boundaries. Near the Red Sea coast, the deposits are primarily marine formations from the late Tertiary and Quaternary periods, covered by modern wind-blown sand deposits. In contrast, near the foothills of the mountains, deltaic deposits are found, some of which are coarse, consisting of large gravel and rock fragments, while others are finer particles carried by streams descending from the mountains. These coarse deltaic deposits gradually disappear under sand deposits, and at the boundary between the two, freshwater springs emerge. …

Situated on the Red Sea, Hodeidah is an important port, exporting coffee, cotton, dates and hides. It was developed as a seaport in the mid-19th century by the Ottoman Turks. As of June 2018, three quarters of humanitarian and commercial cargo entering Yemen arrived via Hudaydah Port. It serves as the entry point for Yemen's humanitarian aid and around 70% of commercial imports. The port of Ras Isa is slightly north of Hodeidah proper, and is the terminus of the Marib–Ras Isa oil pipeline from inland Yemen, with a major storage and offloading vessel named FSO Safer moored offshore, though idled since the beginning of the Yemeni Civil War in 2015. In 1920, the British described Hodeidah's port as being a "poor harbour." With two entrances, it was only able to provide adequate storage and shelter for small boats, with larger boats and ships having to dock over two miles away. …