Besides the map of Aden metro area, I threw in one of Yemen, for the heck of it.  The Yemen map includes several cities I’ve never heard of:  al-Ghaydah, Habarut, Nishtun, al-Salif.  The first three of these, as you can see, are in the extreme east.  This area is called Mahra.  A South Arabian language is still spoken there.  The South Arabian languages are not closely related to Arabic or Hebrew.  They are more akin to Semitic languages of Eritrea and Ethiopia.  I have the impression that in pre-Islamic times, South Arabian languages dominated the southern end of Arabia and that they were only displaced by Arabic after the coming of Islam.  I also noticed that the map indicates Jabal al-Nabi Shu`ayb (Mountain of the Prophet Jethro) near Sanaa.  As a sidenote of possible interest:  Jethro is Moses’ father-in-law, and his tomb is located in Jordan.  “Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian” (Exodus 3:1).

Aden is situated on a peninsula, with a sister peninsula to the west.  The city has several districts, called Crater; Ma`alla; Tawahi; Khormaksar.  There’s a boardwalk area, known as the corniche.  I noticed a white thing, washed up on the beach.  It looked like a stingray but seemed too thick.  The traffic around town isn’t that bad.  There’s old architecture intact from the British period.  In Khormaksar, for example, there’s a series of wood-frame things, about three stories tall.  They look like old military barracks.  An odd evocation of the colonial past.  When I got here, the weather was so humid that just walking around for a few minutes made me pour sweat.  Now it’s dusty and windy.  Sometimes I could use a pair of yellow-tinted safety goggles.

“SANAA (Reuters) – Yemen stepped up security around government buildings and foreign interests on Tuesday a day after a suspected al Qaeda suicide bomber killed seven Spanish tourists and two Yemenis at a tourist site.

“President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose country joined the U.S.-led war against terrorism after the September 11 attacks, said Yemen had received warnings last week of an impending attack but did not know where or when the militants would strike.

“He offered a $75,500 reward for information leading to the capture of militants linked to the attack at the Queen of Sheba Temple in the volatile eastern province of Marib.”

Ma’rib Governorate contains the ancient (and now completely defunct) Ma’rib dam and other old archaeological sites of interest.  There has been a longstanding problem of local militants periodically kidnapping Western tourists.  The goal is to draw the Yemeni government’s attention to certain grievances.  I have no idea what these grievances are or how they are assuaged by kidnappings.  Recently there had been another violent incident; it happened in Shabwa Governorate.