![Bab el Mandeb NASA with description](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Bab_el_Mandeb_NASA_with_description.jpg)
Perim ( ar, بريم
'Barīm'', also called Mayyun in Arabic, is a
volcanic island
Geologically, a high island or volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs (which have often formed ...
in the
Strait of Mandeb at the south entrance into the
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...
, off the south-west coast of
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
and belonging to Yemen. It administratively belongs to
Dhubab District or Bab al-Mandab District,
Taiz Governorate
Taiz ( ar, تَعِزّ, Taʿizz) is a governorates of Yemen, governorate of Yemen. The governorate's capital is Taiz, which is the third largest city in Yemen. Today it is the most important commercial centre in Yemen owing to its proximity to t ...
. The island of Perim divides the strait of Mandeb into two channels.
The island, as a dependency of Aden, was a part of the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
between 1857 and 1967.
Name
In ancient time, it was called "the island of Diodorus" ( el, Διοδώρου νῆσος, la, Diodori insula). It is mentioned by
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
, by the author of the ''
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' ( grc, Περίπλους τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς Θαλάσσης, ', modern Greek '), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and ...
'' and in
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
's
Geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...
.
''Perim'' possibly derives from the Arab term ''Barim'' (chain) associated with the history of the Straits and one of its Arab names, the other Arab name being Mayyun. The Portuguese called it Majun or Meho (from Mayyun), although
Albuquerque
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
had solemnly named the island ''Vera Cruz'' in 1513. On many British and French maps of the 17th and 18th century the island is called ''Babelmandel'', as the Straits are. Some early 19th century navigation guides still call it the island of Bab-el-Mandeb although they may mention that it is also called Perim. By the time the British permanently occupied the island in 1857, the name ''Perim'' had come into general usage.
Geology
![Perim and entire Shaikh Said Peninsula](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Perim_and_entire_Shaikh_Said_Peninsula.jpg)
Perim island is an eroded fragment of the southwest flank of a late Miocene volcano whose center was on the southwesternmost tip of Arabia. The volcano is the westernmost of the east–west line of six central vent volcanoes (the Aden line) that extends 200 km (125 mi) along the coast of Arabia from Perim to
Aden. It is believed that the volcanism is related to an eastward-
propagating rift produced before the most recent stage of sea-floor spreading in the Gulf of Aden.
Geography
Perim is crab-shaped, long and wide.
It has a surface area of and rises to an altitude of . Perim encloses a deep and comparatively large natural harbour on the southwestern coast. The fishing village of Mayyun is located at the bottom of the bay.
The island divides the wide Bab-el-Mandeb into two: the Large Strait, with an average width of , and the Small Strait, varying from in width. The Large Strait is generally deep water varying from about or more in the middle channel to about close to the coastal reefs. The depth of the Small Strait varies from and is free from navigational changes in the
fairway but strong and irregular tidal streams make navigation hazardous. There have been frequent shipwrecks in the vicinity of Perim, particularly in the Small Strait.
The absence of fresh water on the island has always been one of the major difficulties impeding permanent settlement. Although there are occasional heavy rains, there may be stretches of eight months or more without rain; the long-term average rainfall (in 1821–1912) was about per year.
Vegetation is very scarce.
History
![Ottoman fleet Indian Ocean 16th century](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Ottoman_fleet_Indian_Ocean_16th_century.jpg)
The straits of Bab-el-Mandeb were probably witness to the earliest migrations of modern humans out of Africa roughly 60,000 years ago. At this time the oceans were much lower because so much water was frozen in
Ice Age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...
glaciers and the straits were much shallower or dry.
Despite its sheltered natural harbour and strategic location at the entrance of the Red Sea, Perim was largely bypassed by written history until the middle of the 19th century, in good part because the bare, waterless island could not easily sustain life. As a result, only fishermen and pearl divers lived there seasonally, building
reed
Reed or Reeds may refer to:
Science, technology, biology, and medicine
* Reed bird (disambiguation)
* Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times
* Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales
* ...
huts with material brought from elsewhere.
In 1513,
Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa (; – 16 December 1515) was a Portuguese general, admiral, and statesman. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across the Indian Ocean ...
, as part of the Portuguese bid to seize control of the trade routes to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, attacked Aden near the entrance to the Red Sea but failed to capture the fortified city. Having failed in his main objective, he nonetheless sailed for the Red Sea. The Red Sea pilots of those days lived on an island close to Perim and one was secured by sending forward as a decoy an Indian-built ship. The passage of the first Portuguese ship through the Bab-el-Mandeb was the occasion for much ceremony. After having spent some time at the island of
Kamaran
Kamaran Island ( ar, كمران ''Kamarān'') is the largest Yemeni island in the Red Sea. The island is long and wide and is strategically located at the southern end of the Red Sea. It is a "shelf island" located in the shallow waters of the ...
in preparation for an attack on
Jeddah that could not be carried out due to contrary winds, the fleet left Kamaran on its return journey. Perim, which Albuquerque named Vera Cruz, was inspected and pronounced unfit for a fortress due to lack of water.
During the following years, the Portuguese tried several more times to conquer Aden and gain the mastery of the Red Sea, harassing shipping and battling the Egyptian
Mamluk
Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...
, then
Ottoman navies, which gradually gained the upper hand. These actions as well as the sending of an annual fleet to blockade the Bab-el-Mandeb and prevent Indian merchant ships from entering the Red Sea most likely involved frequent use of Perim's natural harbour. By the time the Ottomans captured Aden from its local ruler in 1538, the Ottoman fleet was taking control of the Red Sea, maintaining firm control of the Red Sea, the Bab-el-Mandeb and Aden until the 1630s when the Turks were expelled from Yemen and the south half of the Red Sea.
A French naval squadron might have used Perim's natural harbour in the course of a punitive expedition against nearby
Mocha in 1737. In 1799, the island was briefly occupied by the
British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
in preparation for the invasion of
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
.
Perim under British rule
![Perim Hotel and Club](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Perim_Hotel_and_Club.jpg)
In 1856, seeing the French-sponsored
Suez Canal project as a method to promote French power at Britain's expense, Prime Minister
Palmerston Palmerston may refer to:
People
* Christie Palmerston (c. 1851–1897), Australian explorer
* Several prominent people have borne the title of Viscount Palmerston
** Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston (c. 1673–1757), Irish nobleman an ...
agreed to the occupation of Perim as one of many options to counter assumed French political and military ambitions in Egypt and the Red Sea. In December 1856, Lord Elphinstone, the governor of Bombay, wrote to the Resident of Aden that "on the subject of Perim,
.we have been directed to occupy the island, and that it is the intention of Her Majesty's government that a lighthouse should be built there." He added that since the island had already been taken possession of in the name of the East India Company in 1799, it was considered as a part of the dependencies of India, and therefore no formalities of any kind was necessary. The Resident immediately proceeded to organize a small landing party for the peaceful occupation of the uninhabited island. The actual decision to occupy might have been precipitated by an unfounded report that the French, who were said to have been surveying the area for some time, had dispatched a frigate from
Réunion to annex the island. The declared reason for the occupation, however, was the urgent need to erect a lighthouse at the entrance of the notoriously dangerous Bab el Mandeb and indeed, after much bickering about the location and other factors, an 11-meter high lighthouse was finally built and inaugurated on 1 April 1861. Despite the lighthouse's operation, the treacherous waters around Perim continued to claim many vessels.
[Peter Pickering & Ingleby Jefferson (2012), ]
Perim Lighthouse
', section of ''Perim Island - The Last Colonial Outpost.''
Perim was attached to
Aden, itself a dependency of the
Bombay Presidency,
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
. For the next two decades, the only sign of British occupation was the lighthouse and a small detachment from the Aden garrison. Otherwise, the barren waterless island was left to the few fishermen and
Somali herders who went there. Occasional proposals by an Aden coaling company to open a branch on the island did not materialize.
While Aden had a fine natural harbour, it became ineffective starting in the mid-19th century as iron and steel ships of greater draught were being built. Starting in the 1860s, many of the larger steamers had to stay well off Aden Harbour, making the process of coaling and taking in provisions both time-consuming and hazardous. This deficiency was not to be overcome until dredging projects began in earnest in the early 1890s.
![Perim naval repair facility 1900](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Perim_naval_repair_facility_1900.jpg)
In 1881, a complete outsider, Hinton Spalding of London, was granted permission to start a coaling station on Perim, whose inner harbour could accommodate vessels of any draught. With the backing of a number of large ship-owners, he launched the Perim Coal Company (PCC) and on 29 August 1883 Perim Harbour supplied coal provisions to its first steamer. This marked the beginning of a struggle between Aden and Perim for the Red Sea coaling business that was to be waged by the two ports until the mid-1930s.
![Perim passengers 1925](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Perim_passengers_1925.jpg)
During those 50 years, Perim was to be entirely geared for supplying coal: the harbour, roads and accommodation for workers were laid out for this purpose only. As for Perim's lack of water, it was no more a drawback than at Aden: both ports supplied water from condensers to the ships since Aden water, delivered from out of town, was considered too brackish for the purpose. Before long the PCC was also able to grab the lion's share of the salvage business due to it being very near the most dangerous waters in the area.
Between 1923 and 1927 more coal was being loaded at Perim than at Aden.
[.] However, Perim's decline came fast due to its failure to grab a share of the fast-growing oil fuel business that was cornered by Aden as coal-burning steamers were being retired.
The PCC went bankrupt in 1935 and Perim slipped back into insignificance.
During the First World War, the Turks in Arabia sent a force to threaten Aden and the British communications along the Red Sea. This included an assault on Perim on the 14 and 15 June 1915 when Turks landed on the north coast of the island. They were driven off by a detachment of the
23rd Sikh Pioneers garrisoned on the island under the command of Captain A.G.C. Hutchinson. The troops on the mainland facing the island were subsequently pushed back by troops from Aden supported by the Royal Navy and by the end of the year all threat to the island of Perim had been removed.
In 1964 Perim took on a new role, it became the base for the British Middle East Relay Station. This was built by the British
Diplomatic Wireless Service to be a relay station for the World Service of the BBC. The station had been previously based in Somalia and called the East Africa Relay Station but was closed after a disagreement between the new Somali and the British Governments. The same transmitters were used in both stations and were sent back to the DWS main technical base https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspidistra_(transmitter) at
Crowborough in the UK for a thorough service prior to being set up again on Perim.
The base was built from scratch with new large diesel fuel storage tanks being situated in the port area and a supply pipeline installed to serve the Deltic generators at the transmitter site. 20 prefabricated Houses were built on the western side of the island next to the transmitter site for the engineers and their families. In addition two small barrack blocks provide accommodation for the platoon of Aden based Soldiers that were on a two week ‘RnR rotation’ to provide security. The foundations for all these buildings are still visible on Google Earth.
The station was resupplied by three
Aden Airways
Aden Airways was a subsidiary of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) based in Aden. It was in operation from 1949 to 1967.
History
In 1947, a proposal to form an airline in Aden using a pair of Bristol Wayfarers did not materialize. An ...
Dakota flights each week, as there were no shops on the Island these delivered food supplies from the NAAFI in Aden and took engineers and their families to and from Aden on resupply trips. The Army platoon was flown in and out on a combination of Blackburn Beverly, Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer and De Havilland Beaver flights.
The station started regular broadcasting in early 1965 on 701kHz, the same frequency that had been earlier used in Somalia. Power was likely around 100 kW and was capable of being heard in Australia and New Zealand in the early morning. A disastrous fire broke out in late summer 1965 when one of the main Deltic generators threw a rod. The resulting fire prevented enough power being produced to maintain the broadcast service. While options for the future were being considered many of the British staff were flown to Francistown in Botswana (then Bechuanaland) on a temporary basis to build a small transmitter to broadcast BBC World Service into what was Rhodesia, that country having declared UDI in November 1965.
In the light of the fire damage and the deteriorating security situation in Aden it was decided to move the transmitters up the coast to the Omani island of Masirah. The Perim station was shut down and the transmitters moved before the end of 1966.
British withdrawal and aftermath
The British presence continued until 1967 when the island became part of the
People's Republic of South Yemen
South Yemen ( ar, اليمن الجنوبي, al-Yaman al-Janubiyy), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (, ), also referred to as Democratic Yemen (, ) or Yemen (Aden) (, ), was a communist state that existed from 1967 to 19 ...
. Before the handover, the British government had put forward before the United Nations a proposal for the island to be internationalised as a way to ensure continued security of passage and navigation in the Bab-el-Mandeb,
[.] but it was refused.
Soon after independence in November 1967, South Yemen extended its territorial waters to 12 miles, which would include the waters between Perim and the mainland. Despite fears expressed by the British government and others, there was no interference with international shipping, until 1971 when the new radical Marxist government of what was now the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) allowed a group of
PFLP
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( ar, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين, translit=al-Jabhah al-Sha`biyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn, PFLP) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary so ...
guerillas to attack an Israel-bound tanker in the Bab-el-Mandeb from Perim. During the
October War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Eg ...
, South Yemeni artillery on Perim, along with Egyptian naval units, imposed an undeclared blockade at the southern entrance of the Red Sea. However, after the 1973 blockade, there were to be no further cases of interference with international shipping. The PDRY established close political and military ties with the Soviet Union which resulted in Soviet naval forces gaining access to the former British naval base at Aden as well as to the islands of Perim and
Socotra
Socotra or Soqotra (; ar, سُقُطْرَىٰ ; so, Suqadara) is an island of the Republic of Yemen in the Indian Ocean, under the ''de facto'' control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen’ ...
. This strong Soviet military presence faded rapidly after the 1986 military coup in South Yemen and the advent of
Perestroika under
Mikhail Gorbachev.
Perim Island Airbase
Perim Island Airbase is located on Perim Island within the Bab el-Mandeb strait; the strait being crucial to Saudi
oil production
Petroleum is a fossil fuel that can be drawn from beneath the earth's surface. Reservoirs of petroleum was formed through the mixture of plants, algae, and sediments in shallow seas under high pressure. Petroleum is mostly recovered from oil dri ...
, with
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
making up 12-17% of the industry, the largest share by any one
sovereign nation
A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group.
A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may inc ...
. Perim Island is strategically located at the exit of the
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...
, and at the tail end of the
Suez Canal, leading to the recent creation of an airbase. The
UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
and Saudi Arabia are both allies of Yemen, but as a result of Yemen's civil war keeping control of its own sovereign territory has become a struggle. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are both accused of taking advantage of this, Saudi Arabia due to its increasing military presence in
Socotra
Socotra or Soqotra (; ar, سُقُطْرَىٰ ; so, Suqadara) is an island of the Republic of Yemen in the Indian Ocean, under the ''de facto'' control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen’ ...
Island, and the UAE due to
Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan ( ar, خليفة بن زايد بن سلطان آل نهيان; 7 September 1948 – 13 May 2022) was the second president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi, serving from ...
's efforts to obtain a 20-year lease to Perim Island. Further backing to
Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi
Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi ( ar, عبدربه منصور هادي, translit=ʿAbd Rabbih Manṣūr Hādī Yemeni pronunciation: ; born 1 September 1945) is a Yemeni politician and former field marshal of the Yemeni Armed Forces who served as the pres ...
's claims, UAE based tugboats have been reported to be shipping materials to Perim Island to aid the construction of the airbase.
2015 Yemen Civil War
After the
Houthi takeover in Yemen
The Houthi takeover in Yemen, also known as the September 21 Revolution (by supporters), or 2014–15 coup d'état (by opponents), was a popular revolution against Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi led by the Houthis and their supporters t ...
, the
Houthis
The Houthi movement (; ar, ٱلْحُوثِيُّون ''al-Ḥūthīyūn'' ), officially called Ansar Allah (' ''Partisans of God'' or ''Supporters of God'') and colloquially simply Houthis, is an Islamist political and armed movement that ...
moved to capture Perim island to consolidate their influence and gain access to the important trade route across the
Bab-el-Mandeb
The Bab-el-Mandeb ( Arabic: , , ) is a strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
Name
The strait derives its name from the dangers a ...
strait. Most of Perim's native inhabitants which numbered around 4500, were originally banished from the island during the period when the Soviet Union's military base was in operation. After the beginning of the 2015 Yemen civil war, some of the originally displaced Perim natives joined the
Saudi-led intervention in Yemen to regain the island from the Houthis. The local Yemeni inhabitants launched an assault on the Houthis with the support of the
United Arab Emirates Armed Forces
The United Arab Emirates Armed Forces ( ar, القوات المسلحة لدولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة, Al-Quwwāt al-Musallaḥa li-Dawlat al-ʾImārāt al-ʿArabīyyah al-Muttaḥidah) are the armed forces of the Unit ...
. The native Perim islanders eventually defeated the Houthis in a violent battle that lasted a couple of hours and led to a power plant being destroyed. The Houthis accused the Saudi-led coalition of being "invaders". The Houthis planted multiple mines in the island and according to the local native leader, they still pose a threat to the resumption of normal life on the island.
In March 2021 it was reported that in 2016 there had been an attempt to create an airbase with a 10,000 ft (3,000 m)
runway
According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...
in the north of the island. It was believed that project was abandoned in 2017 with some structures and the runway outline visible. Satellite images from February 2021 revealed construction had begun on a separate, approximately 6,000 ft (1,800m), runway near this project. In May 2021 Yemeni military officials stated that the
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...
was building the runway.
However, based on a statement on the Saudi state news agency SPA, it was subsequently reported the construction was being carried out by a Saudi-led coalition to secure the area.
Yemen-Djibouti Bridge Project
In 2008, a $200-billion mega-project for the construction of a transcontinental bridge linking Yemen and Djibouti via Perim Island, the
Bridge of the Horns, was announced by a Dubai-based company, Al Noor Holding Investments. At around , it would be one of the longest bridges in the world and its suspension portion the longest. However, in June 2010 it was announced that the start of Phase I, the bridge between the mainland of Yemen and Perim, was being delayed indefinitely until after a framework agreement between Djibouti and Yemen could be signed.
References
* ''The Times'', London, 1799, 1857, 1858, 1963
{{Authority control
Islands of the Red Sea
Uninhabited islands of Yemen
Russian and Soviet Navy bases
British Empire
Colony of Aden
Miocene volcanoes
Volcanic islands