Obvious History and Geography

Yemen has been conquered a lot. The most obvious time being when the Islamic Caliphate took power in 630 AD, before that there was a lot of tribalism (still is, too) and rule from various powers you've never heard of so I won't mention them. Previous to the Suez Canal, the Port of Aden was a major hub for commerce, and has been held throughout the centuries by the Egyptian Ayyud, the Ottomans, and the Dutch. After the construction of the Canal Aden has been controlled by the British and the Russians most recently. Some of the traffic circles show this history with sculptures of an Ottoman bridge now gone and a Dutch style windmill. My apartment is former RAF barracks by the airport, and my landlord is half Russian and half Yemeni left over from the Russian rule. Because of the tawdry influence of foreigners and the seafaring type, Aden has a long reputation for being fairly liberal and tolerant. Rimbaud lived here for a while, and I feel incredibly safe. Also, because of the deluge of historical influences, Aden is known as the New Orleans of the Middle East (thus my blog title). Beirut being the Paris, Dubai the New York, and probably other Occidentalist names have been made to undermine the autonomy of the region as if they couldn't do that themselves. Anyways! North Yemen and South Yemen unified to form the country as it is now in 1990, and Aden has adhered to traditional Islamic mores most noticably by covering up the women and prohibiting alcohol to make the Sana'ani more comfortable here or something. The north/south fued is very noticable as I'm sure I'll continue to mention. The geography of the city of Aden itself(see map) is actually four different cities on a peninsula and bay. Crater is the old city (rebuilt unfortunately) located within a dormant volcanic crater. I live in Khormaksar to the to the north, and there are others that I have yet to explore enough to warrant writing about, such as Tawahi, the Aden Free Zone, and Little Aden across the bay.