Al Ghaydah, Yemen

Al Ghaydah, Yemen: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Al Ghaydah is the capital of Al Mahrah Governorate in south-eastern Yemen, situated near the country's border with Oman and among the easternmost cities in the nation. As a coastal location on the Arabian Sea, it serves as a submarine cable landing point connecting Yemen to a broader regional network. One submarine cable lands at Al Ghaydah, the FALCON system, which links Yemen to a corridor spanning the Arabian Gulf, the Red Sea approaches, and the Indian Ocean.

The FALCON cable establishes Al Ghaydah as part of an intercontinental routing path, connecting countries across the Gulf region with South Asia and North Africa. This positions the landing point as a node within one of the more geographically extensive cable systems serving the Middle East, enabling connectivity that reaches from the western Gulf to the Indian subcontinent.

Cables Landing at Al Ghaydah

FALCON is a submarine cable system measuring 10,300 kilometres in length, which entered service in 2006. In addition to Al Ghaydah, FALCON connects Bahrain, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait. The system spans multiple maritime corridors, linking the Arabian Gulf states through the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea toward India, while also extending westward toward Egypt. Al Ghaydah's position on Yemen's eastern coastline makes it a natural waypoint along this route between the Gulf of Oman and the wider Arabian Sea.

Regional Context

Within Yemen, submarine cable infrastructure is distributed across three landing points. Al Hudaydah hosts three cables and Aden hosts two, making Al Ghaydah, with one cable, a smaller node in the national submarine cable footprint. Nevertheless, Al Ghaydah ranks within the top third of Yemeni landing points by cable count, and its eastern location distinguishes it geographically from the other two landing points, which are situated further west along the country's coastline.

Network Role

Al Ghaydah functions as a single-cable terminus, with the FALCON system providing its sole submarine cable connection. Through FALCON, the landing point participates in a corridor that links the Arabian Gulf states — Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran — with India and Egypt, covering an arc of connectivity across the northern Indian Ocean and into the Red Sea region. This eastern Yemeni landing point extends Yemen's submarine cable reach to the Gulf of Oman gateway, complementing the more westerly landings at Aden and Al Hudaydah that anchor the country's other cable connections.

Within the regional submarine cable graph, Al Ghaydah represents the easternmost landing point in Yemen, offering a geographically distinct entry into the FALCON system along a section of coastline otherwise unserved by other cable infrastructure in the country.