Mukalla is not far from
Qana, the ancient principal Hadrami
trading post between
India and
Africa, with
incense producing areas in its
hinterland. Mukalla was founded in 1035 as a fishing settlement. After witnessing a struggle for control by the
Kathiri and
Qu'aiti Sultanates in the 19th and 20th centuries, it became the capital of the Qu'aiti State of
Hadhramaut. The Qu'aiti Sultanate was part of the
Eastern Aden Protectorate until that merger, and a British Resident Advisor was stationed at Mukalla. The other major cities of the Sultanates were
Ash-Shihr and
Shibam. British explorers
Theodore Bent and
Mabel Bent used Mukalla several times in the 1890s to enter and exit the
Wadi Hadhramaut: “Our starting-point for the interior was Makalla, which is 230 miles from Aden, and is the only spot between Aden and Maskat which has any pretensions to the name of port. The name itself means 'harbour'… Here we were deposited in December 1893 by a chance steamer, one which had been chartered and on which for a consideration we were allowed to take passage. I took turns with the captain to sleep in his cabin, but there was nothing but the deck for the others.” In 1967, Mukalla lost its status of
capital city of the
Qu'aiti Sultanate as it became a part of the communist
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and following the
Yemeni unification in 1990, it became part of what is modern-day
Yemen.
Yemeni Civil War During the
Yemeni Civil War, on 2 April 2015,
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) stormed the central prison, freeing hundreds of prisoners including two senior AQAP commanders. They attacked the central bank and seized 17 billion Yemeni riyals and 1 million U.S. dollars before taking control of the presidential palace in the city. During the
Battle of Mukalla (2015), it was reported the entire city was under their control and they planned to establish an
Islamic emirate in the wider Hadramaut region. On 3 November 2015,
Cyclone Chapala struck Mukalla and destroyed the city's waterfront. Mukalla was
recaptured from
Al Qaeda (AQAP) on 25 April 2016, after 2,000
Yemeni and
Emirati troops of the
Saudi-led coalition advanced into the city, taking control of its port and airport and setting up checkpoints throughout the city.
2025 port bombing On 30 December 2025, a
Saudi-led military coalition supporting
Yemen's current government carried out an airstrike on two vessels docked at the port of Mukulla. According to the coalition, the two ships had delivered a large shipment of
weapons and
armored vehicles to the
Southern Transitional Council (STC). == Economy ==