How it began
The dam was built by the Sabaeans, whose kingdom of Saba, the biblical Sheba, had its capital at Marib in what is now north-central Yemen. The first dam is usually dated to the 8th century BCE, and the great building phase at Marib falls in the 7th to 5th centuries BCE. Marib sat on the caravan route that carried frankincense and myrrh toward the Mediterranean, and the wealth from that trade paid for large public works. Later Sabaean and Himyarite rulers kept enlarging the structure.
How it works
The dam crossed the Wadi Sadd, a watercourse that runs only when seasonal rains fall on the mountains. It was about 550 meters long, pyramidal in cross section, and built of fine stone masonry. Sluice gates at the ends, set against the rock, released the captured floodwater into canals. The system watered more than 1,600 hectares on either side of the wadi and supported a dense farming population that depended on careful use of water.
What changed first
The irrigated oasis made Marib a major city of ancient Arabia. Britannica notes that Sabaean agricultural prosperity depended on the dam, and that the city's wealth allowed it to dominate South Arabia. The fortified city was also the center of the cult of the god Almaqah, with a complex of large temples.
What lasted
The dam worked for more than a thousand years but needed constant repair. Breaches are recorded in the 5th and 6th centuries CE, with the last known repairs in 557. The final failure came around 570 or later, and the date and cause are uncertain. It is remembered in the Quran as the flood of Arim, and tradition links it to the migration of tribes out of Yemen. Marib never recovered its former standing. Irrigation methods used in Saba were also taken up across the Red Sea in Ethiopia.
Where it stands today
Ruins of the ancient dam and its sluices still stand. A modern dam was built nearby in the 1980s, paid for by Sheikh Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, and opened on 20 December 1986. In 2023 Marib and nearby Sabaean sites were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The area has been affected by Yemen's civil war since 2014.
