Seaport city (pop., 2004 prelim.: 580,000), southern Yemen, on the Gulf of Aden. It was a principal terminus of the spice road of western Arabia for about 1,000 years before the 3rd century &AD;.
It then became a trading centre under Yemeni, Ethiopian, and Arab control. The Ottoman Empire captured the city in 1538, and the British (who established a garrison there around 1800) governed it from India (1839–1937). It grew in importance as a coaling station and transshipment point after the opening of the Suez Canal. It was made a crown colony in 1937, incorporated in the Federation of South Arabia (1963–67), and served as the capital of South Yemen until that republic's merger with North Yemen in 1990.
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