Perim

Perim (Arabic: بريم, romanized: Barīm), also called Mayyun (Arabic: جزيرة ميون) in Arabic, is a Yemeni volcanic island in the Strait of Mandeb. This strait is at the south entrance to the Red Sea, off the south-west coast of Yemen. The island is part of Dhubab District, also called Bab al-Mandab District, in Taiz Governorate.

Perim is special because it splits the Strait of Mandeb into two channels.

The island was once a dependency of Aden Colony. As part of this colony, it was a part of the British Empire from 1857 to 1967.

Not to be confused with Piram Island or Purim. For the ship, see HMS Perim (K593).

Etymology

In ancient times it was called "the island of Diodorus" (Greek: Διοδώρου νῆσος, Latin: Diodori insula). It is mentioned by Pliny the Elder, by the author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, and in Ptolemy's Geography. Perim possibly comes from the Arab word Barim, meaning chain, which is linked to the history of the Straits and to one of its Arab names. The other Arab name is Mayyun.

The Portuguese called it Majun or Meho, which came from Mayun. In 1513, Albuquerque formally named the island Vera Cruz. Many British and French maps of the 1600s and 1700s called it Babelmandel, the same name they used for the Straits. Some early 1800s navigation guides still called it the island of Bab-el-Mandeb, though they may have mentioned that it was also called Perim. By the time the British took control of the island in 1857, the name Perim had become widely used.

Geology

Perim is an eroded piece of the southwest side of a Miocene volcano. The volcano's center was on the far southwestern tip of Arabia. It is the westernmost of six volcanoes in an east–west line called the Aden line, which stretches 200 km (125 mi) along the coast of Arabia from Perim to Aden.

It is believed that the volcanoes are linked to a rift that spread eastward. This happened before the most recent stage of sea-floor spreading in the Gulf of Aden.

Geography

Perim has been described as crab-shaped. It is 5.63 km (3.50 mi) long and 2.85 km (1.77 mi) wide, with a surface area of 13 km² (5.0 sq mi), and it rises to 65 m (213 ft). On the southwestern coast is a deep and fairly large natural harbour, and the fishing village of Mayyun sits at the bottom of the bay.

The island splits the 32 km (20 mi) wide Bab-el-Mandeb into two straits: the Large Strait, about 17 km (11 mi) wide, and the Small Strait, which is 2.5 to 5 km (1.6 to 3.1 mi) wide. Strong and irregular tides make navigation hazardous, and there have been frequent shipwrecks near Perim, especially in the Small Strait. Fresh water has always been one of the biggest problems for people trying to live on the island permanently. Rain falls occasionally, but there may be eight months or more without any, and the average yearly rainfall was about 60 mm (2.4 in). Vegetation is very scarce.

History

The straits of Bab-el-Mandeb were probably crossed by some of the earliest modern humans leaving Africa about 60,000 years ago, when the sea was much lower because so much water was frozen in Ice Age glaciers. Despite its sheltered natural harbour and strategic position at the entrance of the Red Sea, Perim was largely missing from written history until the mid-1800s, mainly because the bare, waterless island could hardly support life. Only fishermen and pearl divers lived there seasonally, in reed huts. In 1513, Afonso de Albuquerque attacked Aden but failed to take it, then sailed for the Red Sea. After time spent at the island of Kamaran, he prepared an attack on Jeddah, but contrary winds prevented it. Perim, which he named Vera Cruz, was judged unfit for a fortress because it had no water. In the following years, the Portuguese fought the Egyptian Mamluk and Ottoman navies, and the Ottomans captured Aden in 1538. A French squadron may have used the harbour during a punitive expedition against nearby Mocha in 1737. In 1799, the British East India Company briefly occupied the island in preparation for the invasion of Egypt.

In 1856, British Prime Minister Palmerston agreed to occupy Perim as one way to counter French power, since France was sponsoring the Suez Canal project. The declared reason was the need for a lighthouse at the dangerous Bab el Mandeb entrance. An 11-meter lighthouse was finally built and opened on 1 April 1861, though the waters around Perim still wrecked many ships. The island was attached to Aden, part of the Bombay Presidency of British India, and for two decades the only sign of British presence was the lighthouse and a small group of soldiers. In 1881, Hinton Spalding of London was allowed to start a coaling station on Perim, and the Perim Coal Company began supplying ships in 1883. Perim's coal business competed with Aden's until the mid-1930s, but the company went bankrupt in 1935.

Main article: Attack on Perim

During the First World War, Ottoman Turks landed on Perim in June 1915 but were driven off by the 23rd Sikh Pioneers, with support from the Royal Navy. In 1964, Perim became the base for the British Middle East Relay Station, built by the Diplomatic Wireless Service to relay BBC World Service broadcasts. The transmitters had earlier been used at a station in Somalia and were sent back to Crowborough in the UK before being set up on Perim. Supplies came by Aden Airways flights, and a fire in 1965 stopped the broadcasts. The transmitters were moved to the Omani island of Masirah, and the Perim station closed before the end of 1966. In 1967, the island became part of the People's Republic of Southern Yemen. Later, the island's waters were used for an attack on a tanker in 1971 by PFLP guerrillas, and South Yemeni artillery and Egyptian navy units took part in a blockade during the October War. The Soviet Union later gained access to Perim and Socotra, but this presence faded after the 1986 military coup and the arrival of Perestroika under Mikhail Gorbachev.

Main article: Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)

After the Houthi takeover in Yemen, the Houthis moved to capture Perim in order to gain control of the important trade route through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait. After the 2015 civil war began, some Perim residents joined the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen to retake the island, with support from the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces. The island was later under UAE control until 2019, when control passed to Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni Coast Guard. In 2021, Tareq Saleh, a commander of the National Resistance Forces, said his units were stationed on Perim. In 2026, the Houthi forces retook the island.

Climate

Development

In 2008, a Dubai-based company, Al Noor Holding Investments, announced a $200-billion plan to build a bridge between Yemen and Djibouti through Perim Island. The bridge, called the Bridge of the Horns, would be about 28.5 km (17.7 mi) long. It would be one of the longest bridges in the world, and its suspended part would be the longest.

In June 2010, it was announced that the first phase, a 3.5 km (2.2 mi) bridge between mainland Yemen and Perim, was delayed indefinitely. The delay would last until Djibouti and Yemen could sign a framework agreement.