OLD BARRACE

It was used to calm the flow of waves during the rain seasons, and the water thus contained could irrigate the oases of the north and south, on a surface of nearly 10 000 hectares, by means of dispatchers, weirs and small dikes. We do not know the exact dating of the dam, but the downstream water capture and diversion systems show that, from the second millennium before our age, the South-Arab population approaches hydrology techniques. The south and north piers and their locks and overflows show to the visitor the perfection of the South Arabs in the art of capturing waters. The maintenance work of the dam required a large number of labour to remove sediment deposited in the bottom of the basin or to perform work on the building itself. It was in 542 that the last repair of the dam was carried out on the orders of the Ethiopian King Abraha, and then it was the final rupture, perhaps under catastrophic flood, or an earthquake, or more simply because of the lack of manpower.

The new dam, 2 km from the former, was completed in 1986. His funding was provided by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan of Abu Dhabi, whose ancestors lived near Marib. The book irrigates the fields and the citrus cultures around Marib, which settle the population. A long 760 m high, it can contain, the good years, 400 million m 3 of water. A memorial, to the right of the book, tells its story in sabéen and Arabic under the engraved faces of President Ali Abdallah Saleh and Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan. Siroua, the first capital of the Sheba'a Kingdom, cannot be visited for security reasons.