Ma'rib

Government

Ma'rib (Arabic مأرب, DMG Ma ʾ rib, locally Marib; altsabäisch Maryab; Greek: Μαρίαβα / mariaba ) in ancient times was the capital of the kingdom of Saba since the 8th century BC, located some 100 km east of Sanaa in Yemen. Today's Ma'rib has about 21,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the province Ma'rib.

History

The ancient city lay in a plane dry delta of Wadi Adhana, at about 1200 m altitude.

Once in Ma'rib been around since the 3rd millennium BC, there was a fortified settlement, saw the place with the establishment of the incense road a strong upswing. As the most important economic center Ma'rib solved therefore in the 8th century BC as the capital of Sheba from Sirwah. Ma'rib had an acropolis, on which the palaces and temples of the rulers were, during the actual city was surrounded by a 4.2 km long city wall. There were several temples for the main God Almaqah (Moon God ), the most important of the Awwam Temple was.

In Ma'rib once, up to 50,000 people have lived on a walled city area of ​​110 hectares, which Ma'rib was the largest city in ancient South Arabia. The basis for this large population, flourishing agriculture, made possible by the dam of Marib. The thus artificially irrigated area was about 9600 hectares. In the year 24 BC, besieged the Romans under Aelius Gallus in vain the city.

The decline Ma'ribs finally began with the decline of trade on the Incense Route after the Ptolemies and Romans had opened up the sea route through the Red Sea and thus were able to avoid high customs duties and taxes on the land. After it had been several dam failures since the 4th century and Ma'rib after the conquest by the Himyarites also lost its capital status, the city was abandoned after a new dam failure in 572.

In modern times, was the legendary Ma'rib target of several research trips. As the first Frenchman Joseph Arnaud reached 1843, the ruined city. An archaeological exploration of the city was due to the negative attitude of the tribes not possible for a long time. First excavations took place in 1952 under Wendell Phillips, but soon had to be canceled again. After Ma'rib is accessible for tourists and researchers again since 1975, German excavations have taken place here at present.

Special

Marib is one of five cities in Yemen on the provisional UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. The view here is based on the archaeological and historic Old Marib.