Mocha, Yemen

Government

Mocha (of المخا al - Mucha, DMG al -Muha, also Mukha, Mokha, English Mocha ) is a once flourishing Yemeni port city on the Red Sea. It lies at an altitude of 12 meters above sea level and has about 10,000 inhabitants.

After one term export harbor for Yemeni coffee mocha, named a special type of coffee preparation.

History

The coffee plant originates probably from the opposite Ethiopia and has in the Yemeni highlands their home. From the growing regions in 1000 to 2000 meters above sea level, the beans were brought camels to the port of export. Mocha has been known in Europe since the 16th century. In 1554 a new coffee house was opened in Constantinople Opel (Istanbul). 1615 came the first time coffee beans from Alexandria to Venice, where the first coffee house was opened in 1645. He was followed by others: 1650 in Oxford, in 1652 in London, 1659 in Marseille, 1663 in Amsterdam and The Hague, in 1672 in Paris, 1673 in Bremen, 1677 in Hamburg, 1685 in Vienna, 1686 in Regensburg and Leipzig in 1694.

The cityscape was dominated by multi-story, whitewashed homes of wealthy Arab traders and was similar to other port cities on the Red Sea, which Mocha exchanged goods and competed in trade with India: Hodeida, al - Luhayya, Jeddah and on the African side Massawa ( in present-day Eritrea ), Suakin and Aidhab (both in the Sudan). Beginning of the 17th century Dutch and British established trading posts in the 18th century, the French. The movement of goods took place in the village, a penetration into the insular Highlands was the foreign dealers not allowed. In the 17th and 18th centuries lived in the city for up to 30,000 inhabitants. This was the heyday of al - Mucha, which had the monopoly in world trade in coffee and with delivery to Europe hardly nachkam.

Looking for bases Mocha was 1820 occupied by British marines, 1839 but was settled in favor of a British trading colony in Aden. The decline began with the expansion of the port in Aden mid-19th century and was accelerated by the chaos of war. The marketing of coffee was the colonial world.

It is believed that the ancient port town of Muza was at the site of today's mocha.

Current situation

The large living and trading houses from better times will gradually leveled sand dunes of the desert and Tihama are virtually no longer inhabited. Before and besides these (construction) ruins the inhabitants live mostly as fishermen in basic accommodation. In 1994 census, the population was 10,355, including a sprawling settlement on the access road to the east. For 2005 14.562 inhabitants were estimated. The calculation for 2012 is 10,146 residents. Two kilometers south of the town, an industrial port was created. Minor border traffic with boats is by Djibouti and Berbera.

Worth seeing are the remains of the old lighthouse, and the remains of wall decor to the old merchant houses and the white minaret of the Great Mosque of the 15th century.