[YEMEN]. &
[ANONYMOUS].
Albumen photograph of the harbour of Mukalla.
A photograph showing the harbour of the Yemeni seaport.
Freya Stark provides a short history of Mukallah in The Southern Gates of Arabia: “The first contemporary mention of it is by Ibn Mujawir in the fourteenth century, and it remains in almost unbroken obscurity until 1829, when the British came after abandoning Aden, and until 1834 when Haines, looking for a naval base, examined Makalla and Sokotra” (p.22). Her photograph of the harbour, taken in early 1935, captures an expanse and density of buildings far greater than that shown in the present image, therefore pointing to its earliness.