n.
Seaport city (pop., 1994: 398,300), 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 as part of India (18391937). It grew in importance as a coaling station and transshipment point after the opening of the Suez Canal . It was separated from India and made a crown colony in 1937, incorporated in the Federation of South Arabia (196367), and served as the capital of South Yemen until that republic's merger with North Yemen in 1990.