Crater (Yemen)
Encyclopedia
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
. Its official name is Seera (Arabic: صيرة Ṣīrah). It is situated in a crater of an ancient volcano which forms the Shamsan Mountains. In 1991, the population was 70,319.
In the closing days of British rule in 1967, Crater District became the focus of the Aden Emergency, sometimes called the last imperial war. Against a scene of rival Arab nationalists competing for sovereignty, a Scottish infantry battalion marched into the Crater with a pipe-band playing traditional regimental tunes, and managed to occupy the whole district overnight without a single casualty - an achievement which the top brass had declared impossible. To the British at home, now able to teleview military operations live from the battlefield for the first time, this made a dramatic finale to the imperial story, and the officer who led the invasion (Lt. Col. Colin Mitchell of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders) went down in history with the affectionate nickname Mad Mitch.