Kamaran

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Kamaran seen from space

Kamaran Island (Arabic: كمران‎ [Kamarān]; located at 15.35° N 42.5667° E) is the largest Yemen-controlled island in the Red Sea. The 108-km² (42-sq. mile) island is 18 km (11 miles) long and 7 km (4.5 miles) wide and is strategically located at the southern end of the Red Sea.^[1] It is a "shelf island" located in the shallow waters of the Arabian peninsula's continental shelf with coral reefs surrounding three sides of the island.

1 History
- 1.1 Postal history
2 Notes
3 External links

[edit] History

Kamaran had been inhabited for centuries when the Portuguese established an outpost there in the 16th century. The island was occupied by the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century and used as a quarantine station for pilgrims conducting the hajj to the Ottoman-controlled holy city of Mecca.

In 1915, during World War I, the British seized the island with troops from Aden but did not declare formal possession. In 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne that divided up the defeated Ottoman Empire declared an end to its sovereignty over the island and that its future was to be "settled by the parties concerned" without specifying those parties. Britain continued to occupy the island despite the objections of Yemen and administered it from the Colony of Aden. In 1949, Britain formally declared the governor of Aden to be the governor of Kamaran but the island did not become a part of the colony.

In 1967, Kamaran became a part South Yemen upon its independence from Britain but was seized by the adjacent Yemen Arab Republic in 1972 and became a part of a unified Yemen in 1990.

[edit] Postal history

Kamaran Island had an Ottoman post office until 1915 and had a sub-post office of Aden beginning in 1924. From 1967, it was a postal territory of South Yemen, from 1972, of the Yemen Arab Republic, and, from 1990, the Republic of Yemen.

[edit] Notes

^ The source for the area figure is UN System-wide Earthwatch Web Site - Island Directory. Various other sources give significantly different figures including 181, 130, and 57 km². This photo from the period of British rule gives a figure of 207 km² (80 sq. miles).