Ma'rib

Marib lies near the desert edge of eastern Yemen, where irrigation once supported the celebrated Sabaean capital and its agricultural landscape. The remains of the great dam and ancient buildings preserved the memory of a much older civilization whose influence had extended across southern Arabia. By the medieval period, the region's inhabitants lived within a different political and religious world, yet water, cultivated pockets, and routes through the surrounding country continued to shape settlement.

The Sabaeans built temples as well as irrigation works around their capital, and traded in frankincense and myrrh. These ancient remains form the background to the later settlement on the desert margin. Tribal relationships and the changing authority of Yemeni rulers belong to the wider regional context.