Mualla is the harbourside district on the western shoulder of the Aden peninsula, between Crater and Tawahi. Once the main port area for traditional dhow trade, the long curve of waterfront is still the place where wooden vessels load and offload for the Hadramawt coast and the Horn of Africa. Behind the quays, mid-20th-century apartment blocks rise on slopes too steep for grid streets.
The district is best for the working waterfront — fishing boats coming in at first light, ship chandlers' shops in stone buildings from the British years, the smell of wood smoke and diesel that has been the smell of Aden for more than a century.