Dam Importanat In Yemen

and miscellaneous insights

Before 2300 BC there were elaborate earth dams and canal networks in what we now call Yemen. These works were carried out by a people of a pre-Saba'a culture.

The ancient town of Marib was once the capital of the kingdom of Saba'a, which may have been the kingdom of the Queen of Sheba. Saba may have been ruled by sixty female rulers before the Sheba of Solomon's time.

People of of Yemen might have been navigators of the sea and merchants before Moses walked in Egypt.

From good (not perfect)source I learn that after about 820 BC the kingdoms of Maan and Sheba arose in Yemen. And, that at the end of the 5th century BC two more arose, Quataban and Hadramaut. By about 250 BC Sheba absorbed Maan.

From another worthy source I 'hear' that Qahtans pre-dated the Saba and were the ones to begin the dam and canals at Marib. Some held the Qahtani to be in competition with the Adan and the Ma'ad.

We know that a source of historic difficulty is different people give differing names to a 'single entity.'

The earliest inhabitants of Yemen and Southern Arabia are often remembered as Qatani and have been identified with the Jokton of the Bible, a fourth generation decedent of Shem. (Sons of Sam?)

Close connections may be found between Nabataean Arabs and Quahtani. After about 70 BC there is evidence of important inland towns in the hands of Nabataean and Iturian Arabs near the Mediterranean end of the Arabian Penisula. (Petra I've written in other posts of the Nabataeans.

By 750 BC the Great Dam of Marib was one of the great engineering wonders of the world, efficient and beautifully clad in worked stone. By 500 BC it had been enlarged and remained a wonder. The Sheba or Qahtani remained the principle culture until about 220 BC. By 280 BC the Himyrarites dominated that Sabaenn cultur.

The present modern dam was completed in 1986 and is a fine piece of engineering.

Via Eden and Petra

Around 825 BC there was an active and well used camel caravan route form Yemen to Palestine which was probably more important than was the Palestine/Mesopotamia route. It not only moved balsam, myrrh, frankincense and other products of the area, but also goods from Africa and India.

The tourist destination of Petra was more important in this BC period as trade destination. Later the Romans thought the trade through Petra so that it became central to their Province of Arabia Petra.

Yemenis traveling that route may have been passing through Eden.

Yemen of the Sayhad

Yemen was one of the most important trading and navigation centers on earth. They are associated with the Nabatean Arabs which I have written about, but don't remember where. Check them out in Wikipedia.

People of Yemen enjoyed a high level of culture long before Moses was in Egypt. Later they were central ti the Roman spice trade. The Romans referred to Yemen as Arabia Felix, Happy Arabia.,

The earliest Yemeni culture we know much about besides the Nabataea is the Sabaena, both, I believe, Semitic. They traded far. They traded with Mediterranean people and with Egyptians. They also traded in all of South Asia, the east African Coast,
and much of South East Asia. They were probably carrying on much of this trade 2000 years before Christ. The people of the Sabaena Kingdom were carrying on this trade as late as the first century BC.