Mareb: The home of Sheba and the history of Yemen [Archives:2007/1045/Reportage]

By: Ismail Al-Ghabri
As it was named at 1000 B.C, Mareb, the capital of the kingdom of Sheba, stands today to remind us of the Yemeni civilization that once was, giving us lessons in history of how great our ancestors were.

Located 172 km east of Sana'a, Mareb is one of Yemen's richest archeological sites, its many historical sites have become a mekka for tourists coming to Yemen; for example, Brackish, where was the first capital of kingdom of Maeen and one of its most sacred religious sites. Maeen is located in wadi Al Majzar in Mareb governorate.

The city of Barakish is surrounded by an 8-meter wall which survives to our present day. The city has 57 observation towers and two gates; one in the east and the other in the west side, the wall protected the city against all sorts of attacks, and defeated great armies such as the Persian army of Aloys Galyos in 24 B.C.

Landmarks of the city include the prime temple located in the southern part of the city, the temple exemplifies the Maeenian architecture, having 16 vertical and horizontal columns, formulating a grid-shape. Researchers believe that this temple was built for the worship of Athtar, the sun god. There is also another temple in the heart of the city of which four columns can still be seen.

Apart from Baraqish, there are many other sites worth visiting in Mareb, including several sites located along the famous route for frankincense trading in MAGZAR province, such as old Mareb dam and valley and several other ruins of previous civilizations.

Heading to north gate of the great Dam, one can glimpse two natural water routes and several other man-made streams for water, old legend says that those two water routes supplied the valley of the Twin-Paradises, also known as the Gardens of Sheba.

The old city of Mareb was our next station along the road, the old city was the administrative capital of the kingdom of Sheba, and includes the site which was mentioned in the Holy Quran where, Belquis, the Queen of Sheba was called to visit prophet Suliman in Jerusalem around 950 B.C.

Old Mareb has three gates, to the north, west and eastern south directions of the city.

It is believed that the abandoned mud village, which is situated on a mound that rises 25 meters above the surrounding land surface of the site, is located on a part of the historical Salhein Palace, which led to the Royal Temple, as there are huge columns sticking out near the well. There are also three other temples 2 are found in the northern part of the City of Mareb and the third is in the southern part.

The Great Dam of Mareb

One of striking marks of the Sheba civilization' that is the construction of Great Dam of Mareb; According to ancient inscriptions the construction of the dam goes back to the 8th Century BC. The construction of the dam passed through numerous stages over extended periods of time. This viewpoint was stressed further by German researchers who carried out some excavations in one of the old dams in Wadi Dhanna.

The Great Mareb Dam is considered a fixed historic structure that traversed Yemen's cultural evolution from the ouster through the peak of prosperity until the moments of collapse. The technology involved in the construction of the Dam is considered to be the most sophisticated technology for irrigation systems in that ancient world of the time.

The dam was built between mountain called Balaq Al Shimaly (the Northern) and mountain called Balaq Al January (the Southern), where all the rain runoff floodwaters coming from the watersheds of the highlands converge along side of wide areas of Dhamar, Rada'a , Murad , and Khawlan as rains fall during April all through August. The dam then distributes water to irrigate the land of an area exceeding 72 kilometers. It was a huge dam, and was 15 maters high and the length of the dam's body was 720 maters and the breadth of the base was 60 meters.

The foundations of the dam were made from huge rocks topped by earthen Walls that were tiled with stone and gravel on both sides. The outside surface of the walls was covered by unrefined volcanic rock. A section of the dam still stands near the northern drainage outlet.

At the end of the body are the two outlet openings made to distribute water through a network of smaller streams and channels. The purpose behind establishing this great dam was not only to store water as it is the case of the new Dam. However, the old dam was meant to keep level of the water as high as it could easily reach and irrigate the adjacent plains.

The ancient inscriptions mention that the dam was subject to numerous breakdowns and renovations, the last being during the Ethiopian occupation of Yemen in the Mid Sixth Century A D. However, both walls of the outlet openings are still standing as they were described by Al -Hamadani, Yemen's famous historian, a thousand years ago.

Al-jufeinah Dam

Another famous dam is called Al- Jufeinh Dam, which is an ancient dam situated 8k m southwest of Mareb city, and is linked with the Great Mareb Dam Network. Its history goes back to the first Sheba era (that is around 1000B.C) and is considered as a subsidiary diversion dam for the flooding waters of the Great Dam.

The aim of building the dam was to increase the land area of the “Lost paradise””

The dam had four distribution canals