When history became a good for sale Baraqish cries for help [Archives:2002/33/Culture]

By Hassen Al Zaidi
Yemen Times Staff
Baraqish is one of the ancient historical towns in Yemen, located on the road which leads to Jawf governorate, 160 km to the north- west of Sanaa. It was built during the era of the Maeen state in the fourth century B C and it had played a great role in the Maeeni people success of their revolution on the state of Sheba in the year 400 B C.
Baraqish was a source of Yemenis inspiration as the religious life concentrated in it, as mentioned by the historian, Halif. This town which is still full of unraveled secrets about the Maeeni civilization, is nowadays exposed to acts of stealing of its historical antiquities and smuggling them for the sake of getting money at the expense of their national heritage, betraying the sense of patriotism that they should enjoy.
The moment I saw it, I felt that Im in front of a great and deep- rooted historical town, reflecting the great image of an old Yemeni civilization. The person accompanying me in my visit to the town of Baraqish, one of Jawf inhabitants, told me that the historical site of the was systematically exposed to acts of illegal digging by some citizens for the sake of searching for antiques to be smuggled and sold, causing a great loss of a national wealth. He said that people here sell the antiques they find to special brokers who smuggle them out of the country.
It is worth mentioning that Al Wahda Newspaper has recently reported that security forces seized about (450) antique pieces intended to be smuggled via Sanaa airport, but did not refer to the criminals who committed that serious crime and in a bid to sell out our history to foreigners. It is a pity that we never heard about punishing such gangs or sending them to courts for trial, authorities have rather sufficed themselves to announcing the seizure of the antiques. A man there told me that he hoped to retrieve the amount of YR 4,000,000 one of the inhabitants had received for selling an antique one year ago. I felt sorrowful when I remembered an interview conducted by a Yemeni newspaper with a Swedish head of an agency when he said the only hope in his life ever is to see Baraqish and some other historical towns in Al Jawf if he could help. We hope that our government interferes to save our history and antiques from thieves and smugglers.


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