Albumen photograph of the harbour of Mukalla.

Original albumen photograph, measuring 210 by 200mm, mounted on cream-coloured card. There is another photograph mounted on the verso of the card, showing the Memorial Well at the Nana Roa park in Kanpur city. Ms. titles, neatly written out below each image. Some slight fading, mild dust-soiling (especially to the sky) and a small area of loss to the bottom left corner.

A photograph showing the harbour of the Yemeni seaport.

Freya Stark provides a short history of Mukallah in The Southern Gates of Arabia: "The first contemporary mention of it is by Ibn Mujawir in the fourteenth century, and it remains in almost unbroken obscurity until 1829, when the British came after abandoning Aden, and until 1834 when Haines, looking for a naval base, examined Makalla and Sokotra" (p.22). Her photograph of the harbour, taken in early 1935, captures an expanse and density of buildings far greater than that shown in the present image, therefore pointing to its earliness.

Stock Code: 209887