Al Mukalla

Al Mukalla is the port of Hadhramaut and the gateway to the interior wadis, a town squeezed between a line of bare brown cliffs and the Gulf of Aden with a seafront of tall whitewashed merchant houses standing directly above the water. The wealth came from the Indian Ocean trade and from remittances sent home by Hadhrami families who settled across Southeast Asia. The sultan's palace on the corniche is the largest building. Fishing dhows work from the harbour, and the road north climbs onto the Jol plateau. The town is long and thin, squeezed onto the strip between cliff and sea.