Al-ʿAqabah, also spelled Aqaba or Akaba, Latin Aelana, port town, extreme southwestern Jordan. It lies on the Gulf of Aqaba, an inlet of the Red Sea, just east of the Jordan-Israel frontier on the gulf. It is Jordan’s only seaport. Because of freshwater springs in the vicinity, it has been settled for millennia; King Solomon’s port and foundry of Ezion-geber lay nearby.

Originally called Ayla by the Arabs, the present name is an abbreviation of ʿAqabat Ayla, the “pass of Ayla” through the mountains to the north (now occupied by the highway to Maʿān), which was improved for traffic as early as the 9th century AD. In Roman times Al-ʿAqabah was, under Trajan’s rule (AD 98–117), garrisoned by a Roman legion and was the southern terminus of a trade route leading from Syria. Under Byzantine rule it became the seat of a bishopric in the early 4th century. Conquered by Muḥammad in 630/631, it became an important way-station for Egyptian Muslims making the pilgrimage to Mecca. The town was taken by the crusaders (12th century) and finally returned to Muslim rule in 1183. Al-ʿAqabah declined under Ottoman rule; at the beginning of the 20th century it was only a small village. Its pilgrim traffic had largely disappeared following the opening of the Suez Canal (1869) and the completion of the Hejaz Railway (1908).