Big Ben Aden View from the inner roadstead

Big Ben Aden ( ar, بيغ بن عدن ) is a clock tower built by British engineers, along with locals, beside

Aden Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 peopl ...

Harbour in

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 north and Oman to the northeast and ...

during the period that

Aden Province The Chief Commissioner's Province of Aden was the administrative status under which the former Aden Settlement (1839–1932) was placed from 1932 to 1937. Under that new status, the Viceroy of India assumed direct control over Aden, which had h ...

(later called

Aden Colony Aden Colony ( ar, مستعمرة عدن, ), also the Colony of Aden, was a British Crown colony from 1937 to 1963 located in the south of contemporary Yemen. It consisted of the port of Aden and its immediate surroundings (an area of ). Prio ...

) was a territory within 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 ...

. It is superficially similar to the

Elizabeth Tower Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The official ...

(popularly known as

Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The officia ...

), the famous clock tower attached to the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north b ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The clock was shut down for renovation about a quarter of a century ago, and returned to service in February 2012. The tower was built during the 19th century as part of the British colonisation of Aden Province, which began in 1839 and came to an end in 1967. Queen Elizabeth in Aden 1954

History

The clock tower was built more than 130 years ago and was designed in accordance to Big Ben in London, being known as "Big Ben of the Arabs", or "Big Ben of the East". The project was completed in 1890 by British architects involved in the design and construction, with the assistance of local workers, made from a black stones and cement mix. The shape is rectangular and the roof is like an equilateral triangle covered with coated red brick. The diameter is about one meter from four directions and the width is and a height is . From inside it has an iron staircase with the tower directly looking towards the sea with a view of the Tawahi area. There is a replica of the Big Ben tower, but on a smaller scale, located in Crater at Arwa Street behind the National Bank of Yemen (infamously known in the mid-1960s as the Headquartered Fortress of Intelligence for the British Army during the Aden Emergency) and which is overlooked from the hill by the Aden Parliament Assembly building (a former Methodist Chapel converted to its current status in 1962).

References

Clock towers Buildings and structures in Aden {{Yemen-geo-stub