The Bab-el-Mandeb (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

: , , ) is a strait between

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 an ...

on the Arabian Peninsula, and

Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Re ...

and

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

in the

Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...

. It connects the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

to the

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden ( ar, خليج عدن, so, Gacanka Cadmeed 𐒅𐒖𐒐𐒕𐒌 𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒗𐒒) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Chan ...

Name

The strait derives its name from the dangers attending its navigation or, according to an Arab legend, from the numbers who were drowned by an earthquake that separated the Arabian Peninsula from the

. In "Bab-el-Mandeb", "Bab" refers to "gate" while "Mandeb" refers to "lamentation".

Geography

The Bab-el-Mandeb acts as a strategic link between the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

and the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. In 2006, an estimated of oil passed through the strait per day, out of a world total of about moved by tankers.World Oil Transit Chokepoints
, Energy Information Administration, US Department of Energy The distance across is about from Ras Menheli in Yemen to

Ras Siyyan Ras Siyyan or Ras Siyan ( ar, رأس سيان) is a peninsula in the Obock Region of Djibouti, on the Bab-el-Mandeb strait (between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden), about 20 km southwest of Perim Island. The peninsula consists of a reddish ...

in Djibouti. The island of Perim divides the strait into two channels, of which the eastern, known as the Bab Iskender (Alexander's Strait), is wide and deep, while the western, or Dact-el-Mayun, has a width of about and a depth of . Near the coast of Djibouti lies a group of smaller islands known as the "

Seven Brothers 7 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 7 or seven may also refer to: * AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era * 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era * The month of July Music Artists * Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...

". There is a surface current inwards in the eastern channel, but a strong undercurrent outwards in the western channel.

History

Total_petroleum_and_LNG_flows_through_the_Bab_el-Mandeb_Strait_in_2014_through_2018_(48671783212)

Paleo-environmental and

tectonic Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents ...

events in the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" ...

epoch created the Danakil Isthmus, a land bridge forming a broad connection between Yemen and Ethiopia. During the last 100,000 years, eustatic

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

fluctuations have led to alternate opening and closing of the straits. According to the recent single origin hypothesis, the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb were probably witness to the earliest migrations of

modern humans Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

. It is presumed that the oceans were then much lower and the straits were much shallower or dry, which allowed a series of emigrations along the southern coast of Asia. According to

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Chris ...

tradition, the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb were witness to the earliest migrations of Semitic Ge'ez speakers into Africa, occurring BC, roughly around the same time as the Hebrew patriarch

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam ...

. The Kingdom of Aksum was a major regional power in the

. It extended its rule across the strait with the conquest of the

Himyarite Kingdom The Himyarite Kingdom ( ar, مملكة حِمْيَر, Mamlakat Ḥimyar, he, ממלכת חִמְיָר), or Himyar ( ar, حِمْيَر, ''Ḥimyar'', / 𐩹𐩧𐩺𐩵𐩬) (fl. 110 BCE–520s CE), historically referred to as the Homerit ...

shortly before the

rise of Islam The spread of Islam spans about 1,400 years. Muslim conquests following Muhammad's death led to the creation of the caliphates, occupying a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted by Arab Muslim forces conquering vast territori ...

. The

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

unilaterally seized the island of Perim in 1799 on behalf of its

Indian empire The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himse ...

. The government of

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

asserted its ownership in 1857 and erected a lighthouse there in 1861, using it to command the

and the trade routes through the Suez Canal. It was used as a coaling station to refuel steamships until 1935 when the reduced use of coal as fuel rendered the operation unprofitable.Gavin, p. 291. The British presence continued until 1967 when the island became part of the

People's Republic of South Yemen South Yemen ( ar, اليمن الجنوبي, al-Yaman al-Janubiyy), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (, ), also referred to as Democratic Yemen (, ) or Yemen (Aden) (, ), was a communist state that existed from 1967 to 19 ...

. Before the handover, the British government had put forward before the United Nations a proposal for the island to be internationalizedHakim, pp. 17-18. as a way to ensure the continued security of passage and navigation in the Bab-el-Mandeb, but this was refused. In 2008 a company owned by

Tarek bin Laden Tarek bin Mohammed bin 'Awad bin Laden ( ar, طارق بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن; born 1947) is the half-brother of Osama bin Laden, and a member of the Saudi Arabia business community. He was once called "the personification of the d ...

unveiled plans to build a bridge named

Bridge of the Horns The Bridge of the Horns ( ar, جسر القرن الإفريقي, translit=Jisr al-Qarn al-ʾIfriqiyy, ) is a proposed construction project to build a bridge between the coasts of Djibouti and Yemen, across the Bab-el-Mandeb, between the Red Sea ...

across the strait, linking

with

. Middle East Development LLC issued a notice to construct a bridge passing across the Red Sea that would be the longest suspended passing in the world. The project was assigned to engineering company COWI in collaboration with architect studio

Dissing+Weitling Dissing may refer to: * Diss (music), song primarily intended to disrespect people * Dissing+Weitling, architecture and design practice in Copenhagen, Denmark * Heino Dissing (1912–1990), Danish cyclist * Henry Dissing (1931–2009), Danish myco ...

, both from Denmark. It was announced in 2010 that Phase 1 had been delayed; however, as of mid-2016, nothing more has been heard about the project.

Sub-region

The Bab-el-Mandeb is also a

sub-region A subregion is a part of a larger region or continent and is usually based on location. Cardinal directions, such as south are commonly used to define a subregion. United Nations subregions The Statistics Division of the United Nations (UN ...

in the Arab League, which includes Djibouti, Yemen, and Eritrea.

Demographics

Population centers

The most significant towns and cities along both the Djiboutian and Yemeni sides of the Bab-el-Mandeb:

Djibouti

Khôr ‘Angar Syldavia (Syldavian: ) is a fictional country in ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. It is located in the Balkans and has a rivalry with the fictional neighbouring country of Borduria. Syldavia is depicte ...

Moulhoule Moulhoule ( ar, مول هولة) is a town in the northern Obock region of Djibouti. It is situated on the west coast of the Red Sea, at its southern entrance. It is located on the RN-15 National Highway, which connects it to Obock, located some ...

Fagal Fagal ( ar, فغال) is a coastal location in eastern Djibouti. It lies north of Obock. It lies along the N15 road, connected to the Eritrean border at Rahayta to the north. The peninsula strip nearby is called the Ras Siyyan. Just to the south ...

Yemen

* At Turbah * Cheikh Saïd

References

External links

*
Notice-to-Proceed Launches Ambitious Red Sea Crossing

Sea crossing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bab-El-Mandeb Straits of Asia Straits of Africa Straits of the Indian Ocean Arabian mythology Bodies of water of Yemen Bodies of water of Djibouti Bodies of water of the Red Sea Gulf of Aden Borders of Yemen Borders of Djibouti Borders of Eritrea International straits Djibouti–Eritrea border