Heard of Hadhramaut?

I've never heard of Hadhramaut either!  It is both a region and a village located in present-day Yemen, the country south of Saudi Arabia.  In 1932, most of the land was simply "Arabia."  D. van de Meulen, a former official for the Netherlands at the Arabian city of Jidda, had heard there was an ancient remote desert land called Hadhramaut.  Into Burning Hadhramaut: The Arab Land of Frankincense and Myrrh, Ever a Lodestone of Western Exploration, National Geographic Magazine, October, 1932, is the account of his travels there.

In ancient times there was an important trade route through Hadhramaut.  It started in India and Persia, progressed through the desert area of Hadhramaut, and continued to Egypt and Syria, and on to the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.  "Incense trees grew along the barren, rocky plateaus and in the scorching heat of the wadies (dry river beds)," (p. 387).  The gathering of incense, myrrh, and aloe was best left to those who knew the area.  "And woe to him who, uninitiated, tried to collect the valuable product, for, sooner or later, he perished from thirst and exhaustion," (p. 387).

In the 1890s, there were two foreign groups who attempted to discover the secrets of Hadhramaut but were either killed or scared away by the native Bedoins.  By 1932, the sheiks were favorable to this Netherland  gentleman and protected him on his journey.  Understand, he mostly traveled by camel.  At one point, a sheik owned a car.  For part of the journey, the car had to be dismantled and carried by camels.  At another point, the country was so rocky and steep with cliffs that the men had to walk and hope the camels could descend into the valley.

With temperatures reaching 118 to 120 degrees, it is a wonder any human can live there!  In the villages, "the days are a torment, that must be endured somehow, preferably, by sleeping," (p. 419).  The author noted that in many of the villages, he had to be careful to avoid having sewage or garbage dumped on him from above, as was their practice. The buildings in the villages were all constructed of mud.  The author marveled that they could reach ten to eleven stories, even though they were made of sun-dried bricks.

Much of the land, judging from the black-and-white photos in the article, resembled the American Grand Canyon.  There were very few roads which quickly disappeared when the sandstorms came through an area.

From time to time, the author and his party were royally entertained by one of the sheiks.  "While Hadhramaut itself now has no sources of wealth, many of its sultans, sayids, and prominent Arab families have grown rich on trade with India," (photo caption, p. 423).  The natives were extremely primitive in every aspect of their lives.

Mr. van de Meulen particularly wanted to visit Bir Barahut, or "The Mouth of Hell."  Westerners had heard so many varying tales of it, they thought it must be an active volcano.  Hardly anyone would take the foolhardy Europeans there but there were a few brave souls.  The Mouth of Hell turned out to be a large cave system.  The party explored its many passages for hours.  When they returned to the cave opening, the natives were shocked.  They thought the others had died inside.  "At the entrance, we found our waiting escort in deep slumber.  They stared at us in dumb amazement when we had awakened them.  We looked more like chimney sweeps than spirits from the underworld!" (p. 423).

When ready to return home, the author reflected, "The following morning, we mounted our silently trotting camels.  The whole population of Dijar al-Buqrie stood together, under the protection of their mud walls, to see us off.  We rode toward freedom, if God would spare us on the long and unknown road that lay before us; they remain, prisoners in their own desert citadel, in the scorching gateway of Hadhramaut, loyal to their poverty-stricken land," (p. 429).