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Balhaf

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Balhaf (Arabic: بالحاف) is an industrial port town and an oasis in an area of coastal dunes in the Burum Coastal Area of Yemen. It has palm trees and white sand, which gives way to fields of black lava and to the fishing port of Bir-Ali. Qana, a major point of departure of the Route I'Encens, was the main port of the ancient kingdom of Hadhramaut, and is dominated by a hill, Husn al-Ghurab, or remains of the ancient vestiges. A I'écart is located on an extinct volcano, a crater lake with turquoise waters. The "Corniche" road leads to the coastal port of Burum. Burum, a typical fishing port, is an old village surrounded by a gypsum kilns. Close by, one can see the large bay of Mukalla, whose wetlands are populated by migrant birds from India or Africa.

01Location

Balhaf belongs to Shabwa of Yemen, located about 150 km from Mukalla-the capital of Hadhramaut (48.1802°E 13.9854°N).

02History

Balhaf was the capital of the Sultanate of Wahidi Balhaf, one of several Wahini states which in the 1880s became part of the British Aden Protectorate. In 1902 the fort at Balhaf was demolished by troops from the British cruiser HMS Perseus, in response to pirate activities by the locals.

03World Heritage status

This site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on 08/07/2002, in the mixed (cultural and natural) category.

04Importance

Balhaf is now considered one of the main ports of Yemen, particularly after the success of Yemen LNG project for constructing a liquefied natural gas plant in 2006.

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Balhaf, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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