Barran Temple

This story was sent along by Mohammed Alzaeem.  You can follow him on Twitter at @mohammedalzaee1.


"Barran Temple is a Sabaean temple near Ma'rib, Yemen; also known as the "Throne of Bilqis", the queen of Shiba whose story with the prophet Solomon is mentioned in the Bible and the Holly Qur'an.

The temple is located to the west of Awwam Temple, dedicated to the God Almaqah. The main features of the structure are the six columns and the sacred well in the middle of the courtyard.

It was partly excavated by Wendell Phillips' expedition of 1951-2.

To make it clear, Yemen is one of oldest centers of civilization in the Near East. Its relatively fertile land and adequate rainfall in a moister climate helped sustain a stable population, a feature recognized by the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy, who described Yemen as Eudaimon Arabia (better known in its Latin translation, Arabia Felix) meaning Fortunate Arabia or Happy Arabia. Between the eighth century BCE and the sixth century CE, it was dominated by six main states which rivaled each other, or were allied with each other and controlled the lucrative spice trade: Saba or the kingdom of Shiba, Ma'in, Qataban, Hadhramout, Kindom of Awsan and the Himyarite kingdom. Islam arrived in 630 CE and Yemen became part of the Muslim realm."



Several years ago I spent a year in the United Arab Emirates and that is when I decided to to visit Yemen, which required getting a Yemeni visa, and a visit to Yemen Embassy - and eventually a meeting with the Yemen Ambassador.  He asked me, somewhat quizzically, "Why do you want to go to Yemen?"  I told him, "I'm a historian.  How could a historian not want to go to Yemen?"  I'm so happy that Mohammed sent along this story and picture.  Yemen has such an extraordinary history, and often the outside world doesn't understand that.  Inshallah Yemen will someday soon recapture its ancient designation as Happy Arabia.


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