Maʾrib, town and historic site, north-central Yemen. It is famous as the location of the ancient fortified city of Maʾrib and its associated dam, principal centre of the pre-Islamic state of Sabaʾ (950–115 bce). Sabaean civilization reached its peak with the transfer of power from the mukarribs (priest-kings) to autocratic monarchs (7th century bce). The ancient city, in a fertile oasis irrigated by the impounded waters of the Maʾrib Dam, has been called “the Paris of the ancient world.” It was on one of the principal caravan routes that linked the Mediterranean world and the Arabian Peninsula, and it prospered especially because of its trading monopoly of frankincense and myrrh from Yemen and the southern coastal region of Hadhramaut.
Maʾrib Dam (Arabic: Sadd Maʾrib) was built to regulate the waters of the Wadi (watercourse) Sadd, called Wadi Sabaʾ in antiquity. The ancient dam, about 1,800 feet (550 metres) long and pyramidal in cross section, was of fine stone-and-masonry construction, with sluice gates to control the flow of water. It irrigated more than 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares) and supported a densely settled agricultural region, dependent on careful water conservation. Successive generations of Sabaean and Ḥimyarite rulers improved the works, though there were breaks in it in the 5th and 6th centuries ce. Its final destruction, perhaps by earthquake or volcanic eruption, took place possibly in the 7th century. As the “flood of Arim” (Arabic sayl al-ʿarim), it is mentioned in the Qurʾān (Koran); sometimes translated “the flood of the dike” or the “bursting of the dike,” it is a favourite topic in Islamic myth and legend.
The contemporary small town of Maʾrib, principally constructed of stones from the ancient Sabaean ruins and standing upon a tall (a stratified archaeological mound), is a centre for Bedouin tribesmen, who pasture flocks of camels, sheep, and goats. Some of the country’s finest horses are raised in the district. The town contains the ruins of a citadel, which stored many inscriptions and statues of the pre-Islamic Sabaean period, and the finely built ancient temple of Almaqah (or Ilmuqah), a Sabaean deity. They were severely damaged in the Yemeni civil war of 1962–70.
The surrounding region borders the southern Arabian desert known as Rubʿ al-Khali (“Empty Quarter”), mostly in Saudi Arabia. Although there are several wadis such as Ḥarīb and Al-Jawf, the region has the poorest agricultural productivity in the country. The land slopes eastward from 6,000 to 3,000 feet (2,000 to 1,000 metres) where it merges with the Rubʿ al-Khali. Sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys are raised, and dates are cultivated. Since 1984, when large deposits of petroleum were discovered nearby, Maʾrib has played a central role in the country’s oil industry. Pop. (2004) town, 13,863.