Map - Al Mukalla (Al Mukalla)

Mukalla (ٱلْمُكَلَّا, Al Mukallā) is a seaport and the capital city of Yemen's largest governorate, Hadhramaut. The city is in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula on the Gulf of Aden, on the shores of the Arabian Sea, about 480 km east of Aden. It is the most important port in the Hadhramaut and the fifth-largest city in Yemen, with a population of approximately 500,000. The city is served by the nearby Riyan International Airport.

Mukalla is not far from Cane or Qana, the ancient principal Hadrami trading post between India and Africa, with incense producing areas in its hinterland.

Mukalla was founded in 1035 as a fishing settlement. This area was part of Oman until the middle of the 11th century, and later this area became part of Yemen. After witnessing a struggle for control by the Kathiri and Qu'aiti Sultanates in the 19th and 20th centuries, it became the capital of the Qu'aiti State of Hadhramaut, and then in 1967, it became a part of South Yemen. The Qu'aiti Sultanate was part of the Eastern Aden Protectorate until that merger, and a British Resident Advisor was stationed at Mukalla. The other major cities of the Sultanate were Ash-Shihr and Shibam.

Captain Haines, a British officer who surveyed Yemen in the 1830s, described Mukalla as a town of 4500 inhabitants with a significant trade in slaves. British explorers Theodore Bent and Mabel Bent used Mukalla several times in the 1890s to enter and exit the Wadi Hadhramaut: “Our starting-point for the interior was Makalla, which is 230 miles from Aden, and is the only spot between Aden and Maskat which has any pretensions to the name of port. The name itself means 'harbour'… Here we were deposited in December 1893 by a chance steamer, one which had been chartered and on which for a consideration we were allowed to take passage. I took turns with the captain to sleep in his cabin, but there was nothing but the deck for the others.” In 1934, British traveler and explorer Freya Stark began her journey into the hinterland of the Hadhramaut from Mukalla, and her stay in that city is recorded in her book, The Southern Gates of Arabia.