Yakhtul () is a large coastal fishing village in the

Taiz Governorate Taiz () is a governorates of Yemen, governorate of Yemen. The governorate's capital Taiz, the third-largest city in Yemen, is among the most important commercial centres in the country, owing to its proximity to farmland, the Red Sea port of Mok ...

of southwestern Yemen. Yakhtul is located about "two German leagues (10 miles) north of the city of

Mocha Mocha may refer to: Places * Mokha, a city in Yemen * Mocha Island, an island in Biobío Region, Chile * Mocha, Chile, a town in Chile * Mocha, Ecuador, a city in Ecuador * Mocha Canton, a government subdivision in Ecuador * Mocha, a segmen ...

." It contains a number of white houses, the Yakhtul Mosque and a school.

History

During World War I, British patrol vessels shelled Dhubab fort in November 1914 and opened fire on Yakhtul on 8 December 1914, damaging 7 or 8

dhow Dhow (; ) is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with settee or sometimes lateen sails, used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Typically sporting long thin hulls, dhows are trading vessels ...

s moored there.

Geography

Yakhtul lies on the coast of the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

, at the head of a small shoal inlet, north of Mocha. Jirdan lies farther to the north of Yakhtul, 'Abus to the southeast and Kudhaysah to the northeast. The stretch between Yakhtul and Marsa Farjah has numerous sand and coral patches which give the sea a dark grey colour. The stretch between Yakhtul and Al Zahari contains coastal palm groves.

Economy

MEED MEED, formerly ''Middle East Economic Digest'', is a media publishing company founded in 1957 focused on economic and business news related to the Middle East. MEED also provides advertising and marketing services. History The first issue o ...

describes Yakhtul as being tourist oriented. Fishing is a major source of income for the locals. As of 1996, despite many of the houses having their own wells, high water salinity meant that it could only be used for bathing and cleaning, and drinking water had to be imported. However, the local diet is said to meet the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

minimum requirements, with a plentiful supply of nutrients from fresh fish and other local commodities. A French medical team was reported to be operating in Yakhtul in the mid-1980s.

Notable landmarks

Yakhtul is described as consisting of "a few white houses, some huts, and a mosque." The town contains Yakhtul Mosque, which was said to have been "built at the expense of the good people of the area at a cost of one million riyals." The same man who built the mosque also established Yakhtul preparatory school in the town, at a cost of 150,000 riyals. The "first phases of construction work" were reported to have been completed in 1989. At the village is what is called "Dar al-milh" (the place of salt). The salt pans, called ''darah'' are said to be "cut out of the hard ground and the soil heaped up on the sides to form bunds (''zabir al-darah'').

References

{{Reflist, 2 Populated places in Taiz Governorate Populated coastal places in Yemen Villages in Yemen