Aden

Aden is built inside the flooded crater of an extinct volcano on a peninsula joined to the mainland by a sandy neck, one of the great natural harbours of the world and a coaling station that made it the busiest port between Suez and Bombay. The quarter called Crater sits inside the caldera itself, ringed by black volcanic walls. Its Cisterns of Tawila, a stepped system of plastered reservoirs cut into the rock, are attributed to the Himyarite period. The waterfront carries the layered architecture of British, Indian and Arab Aden. Distances across the peninsula are longer than they look on a map.