Al Abr or Al ‘Abr ( ar, آل العبر ) is a small town in central-eastern Yemen. It is the seat of
Al Abr District of the
Hadhramaut Governorate. It is served by a small airport.
History
A number of megalithic sites have been found in the surrounding area.
The original settlement there consisted of a cluster of wells in the
wadi
Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water onl ...
protected by an ancient fort (''husn''). Caravans on the
Incense Route
The Incense Trade Route was an ancient network of major land and sea trading routes linking the Mediterranean world with eastern and southern sources of incense, spices and other luxury goods, stretching from Mediterranean ports across the Levant ...
would water there and the place also served as a base for
Bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
tribes such as
Sa'ar or Sei'ar. Abdulla bin Schuwail al Dawsai, who was active against the Sa'ar in the late 1940s, is known to have been present in the town.
One of the first western women to reach this area was
Barbara Toy
Barbara Alex Toy FRGS (11 August 1908 – 18 July 2001) was an Australian-British travel writer, theatrical director, playwright, and screenplay writer. She is most famous for the series of books she wrote about her pioneering and solitary travel ...
who wrote of her visit there in the 1960s.
Geography
To reach it from
Sana'a
Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Governo ...
involves hundreds of miles of driving across desert. It lies along the N5 highway, north-northwest of
Seiyun
Seiyun (also transliterated as ''Saywun'', ''Sayoun'' or ''Say'un''; ar, سَيْئُوْن Hadhrami pronunciation: , Literary Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩪𐩺𐩱𐩬 ''S¹yʾn'') is a city in the region and Governorate of Hadh ...
. The
Wadi Hadhramaut has its source near Al Abr
and it is about 3,000 feet above sea level. It is served by a small airport.
Poetry
Poetry is politically significant in the region and the popular poet,
Khamis Salim Kindi, made reference to the place in a famous quatrain about the powerful Adbat clan whose area was bombed by the British during WW2 because of their Axis sympathies, as the British had previously bombed the al-Say'ar tribe in the al-'Abr area.
References
{{Hadhramaut Governorate
Populated places in Hadhramaut Governorate