Hadhramaut

Hadhramaut حضرموت
Historical region of Arabia
The Old Walled City of Shibam, a UNESCO World Heritage Site Seiyun Palace, one of the world's largest mud-brick structures The Minaret of al-Muhdhar Mosque Haid al-Jazil in Wadi Dawan Mukalla, capital city of Hadhramaut
Map of Hadhramaut in the Arabian Peninsula
Coordinates: 16°N 49°E / 16°N 49°E / 16; 49
Countries	Yemen (main) Oman Saudi Arabia
Notable cities	List Mukalla Tarim Shibam Seiyun Ash Shihr Al Ghaydah Salalah Al-Wadiah Sayhut
Governorates	List Hadhramaut (main) Shabwah (main) al Mahra (main) Aden Abyan Lahij Dhofar Sharurah
Highest elevation [1] (Kawr Saybān)	2,070 m (6,790 ft)
Demonym	Hadharem

Hadhramaut^{[note 1]} (Arabic: حَضْرَمَوْت, romanized: Ḥaḍramawt pronunciation^ⓘ; Hadrami Arabic: حَضْرَمُوت, romanized: Ḥaḍramūt pronunciation^ⓘ) is a geographic region in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula which includes the Yemeni governorates of Hadhramaut, Shabwah and Mahrah, Dhofar in southwestern Oman, and Sharurah in the Najran Province of Saudi Arabia, and sometimes the Aden, Abyan and Lahij governorates of Yemen at a more stretched historical definition. The region's people are known as the Hadharem. They formerly spoke Hadramautic, an old South Arabian language, but they now predominantly speak the Hadhrami dialect of Arabic.

Though the origins of the name are unknown, the name Hadhramaut is traditionally explained as a compound word meaning "death has come" or "court of death," derived either from the Arabic ḥaḍara ("he came") plus mawt ("death"), a folk nickname for Amer bin Qahtan, the region's legendary first settler, or from the Biblical Hebrew ḥaṣar ("court" or "dwelling") plus māweṯ ("death") as seen in Hazarmaveth. The name is of ancient origin and is reflected in the name of the modern-day Yemeni governorate of Hadhramaut.

The boundaries of Hadhramaut stretches from the Empty Quarter desert in the north down through its Wadi Hadhramaut and its coastal plain on the Arabian Sea, historically spanning from modern-day Aden in the west across Dhofar to the east but today spans Yemen's Shabwah from the west and Oman's Dhofar to the east. The region once comprised the Qu'aiti and Kathiri sultanates whose lands now form the Hadhramaut governorate, with tribal Hadhrami towns clustered around oasis wells in the wadis, where they farm wheat, millet, dates, coconuts and coffee, while Bedouin herders graze flocks on the plateau. Physically, the region divides into Inner Hadhramaut,centered on the main wadi and its tributaries, and Coastal Hadhramaut, a narrow plain backed by the steep Jowl escarpment rising to about 1,370 m; to the north the highland plateau (Haḍbat Ḥaḍramawt) slopes down sharply into the Empty Quarter, creating a transition from lush valley to arid desert.

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