Aden consists of a number of small towns: Crater, the original port city, the industrial city known as Little Aden with its large oil refinery, and Madinat ash-Sha'b (Crater), the centre of government. Two suburbs, Khormaksar and Sheikh Othman, lie north of Crater, the old city, with the international airport situated between them. This is the former RAF Khormaksar. As Aden encloses the eastern side of the Port, Little Aden forms its mirror image, enclosing it on the western side. Little Aden became the site of the oil refinery and Tanker port. Both were operated by British Petroleum.

Aden was the capital of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen until that country's unification with the Yemen Arab Republic when it was declared a free trade zone. It gives its name to the Gulf of Aden.

The port's convenient position on the sea route between India and Europe has made Aden desirable to rulers who sought to possess it at various times throughout history. Known as Arabian Eudaemon in the 1st century BC, it was a transshipping point for the Red Sea trade, but fell on hard times when new shipping practices by-passed it and made the daring direct crossing to India in the 1st century AD, according to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.

On 19 January 1839 the British East India Company landed Royal Marines at Aden to stop attacks by pirates against British shipping to India. The port lies about equidistant from the Suez canal, Bombay, and Zanzibar, which were all important former British possessions. Aden had been a way-station for seamen in the ancient world. There, supplies, particularly water, were replenished. So, in the mid-nineteenth century, it became necessary to replenish coal and boiler water. Thus Aden acquired a coaling station at Steamer Point. Aden was to remain under British control until 1967.

Aden was ruled as part of British India until 1937, when it became the Colony of Aden, a British crown colony. The change in government was a step towards the change in monetary units seen in the stamps illustrating this article. When The Indian Empire went its independent ways, Indian rupees (divided into annas) were replaced in Aden by East African shillings. The hinterland of Aden and Hadhramaut were also loosely tied to Britain as the Aden Protectorate which was overseen from Aden.

Aden's location also made it a popular exchange port for mail passing between places around the Indian Ocean and Europe. Mail is known to exist from June 15, 1839, although a regular postmaster was not appointed until 1857. Aden used postage stamps of British India until it became a crown colony on April 1, 1937. Although these stamps carried no special identification they may be recognised through the use of the number 124 in postal cancellations, which was assigned to Aden as part of the Indian postal number system. Once Aden became a crown colony it received a series of pictorial stamps inscribed "Aden".

After the loss of the Suez Canal in 1956, Aden became the main base in the region for the British. Aden sent a team of two to the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia.

Little Aden is still dominated by the oil refinery built for British Petroleum. Little Aden was well known to seafarers for its tanker port with a very welcome seaman's mission near to the BP Aden tugs' jetties, complete with swimming pool and air conditioned bar. The accommodation areas for the refinery personnel were known by the original Arabic names of Bureika and Ghadir.

Bureika was wooden housing bunkhouses built to accommodate the thousands of skilled men and labourers imported to build the refinery, later converted to family housing, plus imported prefabricated houses "the Riley-Newsums" that are also to be found in parts of Australia (Woomera). Bureika also had a protected bathing area and Beach Club.

Ghaddir housing was stone built, largely from the local granite quarry; much of this housing still stands today, now occupied by wealthier locals from Big Aden. Little Aden also has a local township and numerous picturesque fishing villages, including the Lobster Pots of Ghaddir. The army had extensive camps in Bureika and through Silent Valley in Falaise Camp, these successfully protected the refinery staff and facilities throughout the troubles, with only a very few exceptions. Schooling was provided for children from kindergarten age through to primary school, after that, children were bussed to The Isthmus School in Khormaksar, though this had to be stopped during the Aden Emergency.

In order to stabilize Aden and the surrounding Aden Protectorate from the designs of North Yemen, the British attempted to gradually unite the disparate states of the region in preparation for eventual independence. On 18 January 1963, the Colony of Aden was incorporated into the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South against the wishes of much of the city's populace as the State of Aden and the Federation was renamed the Federation of South Arabia (FSA).

An insurgency against British rule known as the Aden Emergency began with a grenade attack by the National Liberation Front (NLF) against the British High Commissioner on December 10, 1963, killing one person and injuring fifty, and a "state of emergency" was declared.

In 1964, Britain announced its intention to granting independence to the FSA in 1968, but that the British military would remain in Aden.

In January 1967, there were mass riots by the NLF and the rival Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY) supporters in the old Arab quarter of Aden town, which continued until mid February, despite the intervention of British troops. During the period there were many attacks on the troops, and an Aden Airlines DC3 plane was destroyed in the air with no survivors.

On November 30, 1967 the British finally pulled out, leaving Aden and the rest of the FSA under NLF control. The Royal Marines, who had been the first British troops to occupy Aden in 1839, were the last to leave.
Aden became the capital of the new People's Republic of South Yemen which was renamed the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1970. With the unification of northern and southern Yemen in 1990, Aden was no longer a national capital but remained the capital of Aden Governorate which covered an area similar to that of the Aden Colony.

On December 29, 1992 Al Qaeda conducted its first known terrorist attack in Aden, bombing a hotel where US servicemen were known to have stayed. Two Austrian tourists were killed.[2]

Aden was briefly the centre of the secessionist Democratic Republic of Yemen from 21 May 1994 but was reoccupied by Republic of Yemen troops on 7 July 1994.

Members of a terrorist group Al Qaeda attempted to bomb USS The Sullivans at the port of Aden as part of the 2000 millennium attack plots. The boat that had the explosives in it sank, forcing the aborting of the planned attack.

The USS Cole bombing occurred in Aden on 12 October 2000.

Aden (MOD official account)
Mountainous terrain, brutal climate and fierce local tribesmen, well armed and prepared to fight to the death were a culmination of ugly characteristics facing British troops, as the Arabs battled for the independence of Aden.
The small British protectorate on the southern tip of Saudi Arabia, first saw conflict in 1964, when the people of Radfan, north of Aden, became increasingly influenced by the nationalist Arab movements surrounding the tiny state.

Situated more than 60 miles north of Aden, the Quteibi, lbdali and Bakri tribes traditionally supplemented their income by looting travellers on the Dhala road which connected Aden to the state of Yemen. Now with the support of extremists called the Aden National Liberation Front, they were armed and willing to join the struggle to force the British to withdraw from the colony.

In the spring of 1964, the main Radfan based tribe, backed with Egyptian and Yemeni weapons, mined the Dhala road and began regular ambushes. Their activities provoked swift response.

Paras of B Company 3rd battalion Parachute regiment joined 45 Commando RM and the Federal Regular Army, in an operation known as 'Radforce' and set out to dominate the Dhanaba Basin and secure the village of El Naqil.

The initial plan called for a night-time drop by B Company, on a key feature codenamed Cap Badge. But the jump was cancelled and instead they spent 30 exhausting hours marching and fighting to take their target.

In recognition of their success, they renamed El Naqil 'Pegasus village' and then along with 45 Commando withdrew to Aden. This was the first of many assaults into the mountains to put down the Arab rebellion.

A reserve brigade was flown into Aden as well as the remainder of 3 Para, then based in Bahrain as a result of the earlier threatened invasion of Kuwait, to support the success of B Company and the Marines.

In a brilliantly planned operation, Lt Col Farrar-Hockley led 3 Para to capture Bakri Ridge in May 1964. His battalion included 105mm guns from 7 Royal Horse Artillery, Para gunners, airborne engineers and medics from 23 Parachute field ambulance.

By 1964, the terrorist attacks had spread to Aden, just south of Radfan, and 1 Para were deployed on security duties throughout the areas of Crater and Khormasker, to protect British service families.

Later in January 1967, 1 Para was back in Aden. This time on an emergency tour to relieve the Royal Anglian regiment at Sheik Othman, the key point to Aden from the mountains of Radfan.

By now terrorist atacks were at their height and all military families had been sent back to England. Military married quarters had been bombed, cinemas blown up and schools shot at, resulting in many British casualties.

A large element of British forces in the province had also been sent back to the UK, as plans were laid for the eventual withdrawal of British Forces from Aden.

At Sheik Othman, 1 Para found themselves under a hail of fire within days of the battalion officially taking over on June 1 - a day which was to become known as 'The glorious first of June'.

The Arab gunmen had launched a substantial assault on the unit to test their resources and attempted to overrun Sheik Othman, but they had not taken into account a series of observation posts heavily manned by Paras and hidden from view.

In the battle that followed, the Paras killed 16 terrorists, destroying the plans of both guerilla groups - NLF and FLOSY to take control of Sheik Othman.

Shooting, bombing and rocket attacks continued right up until the battalion was given the order to 'pull out', marching six abreast out of Radfan camp with their weapons still loaded, on November 27, 1967, after 128 years of British rule.