Al-Qāra

Al-Qara is a fortified settlement high in the mountains of Yafa, northeast of Aden. Its steep rocky height is crowned by a plateau difficult to approach, with stone houses, walls, mosques and cisterns for collecting rainwater. From the late seventeenth century it served as the seat of the Afifi rulers of Lower Yafa. A travel account records a visit to al-Qara in 1706, when the route through Yafa linked local chiefs with visitors travelling between the coast and Hadramawt.