Tawahi — known as Steamer Point during the British years — is the old commercial quarter at the northwest corner of the Aden peninsula. The grid of long colonnaded streets was laid out in the 19th century for the merchants and trading houses that supplied the steamships of the P&O line on their way between Suez and Bombay. Two-storey buildings with arched arcades line the main avenue, many still occupied by hardware shops, money changers, and small cafes.
This was once the most cosmopolitan corner of southern Arabia, with Hadhrami, Indian, Somali, Greek, and Jewish communities. The architecture survives in fragmented form, hard hit by years of conflict and abandonment, but it is still the most legibly colonial-era part of the city.