MARIB:

In ancient times Marib, 120 km from Sana’a in the Wadi Adhana region, was a major centre of  the Sabaean empire, the oldest, most celebrated and powerful of the south Arabian kingdoms. Ultimately it became the capital of the kingdom, supplanting Sirwah, 35km to the west. This once was Marib. As many inscriptions tell us, great temples and palaces once graced the city.
The fame of the once thriving metropolis survived. As late as the 10th century AD the Yemeni geographer and historian al-Hamdani described with nostalgia how Saba’s splendor and power vanished, and he paid tribute to the glories of the ruler’s palace Salhin in Marib. Inscriptions from the 7th century BC onward mention Salhin, and they also refer to two other palaces