Marib Reservoir

Where is Marib Reservoir?

Countries on its shores: Yemen.

Largest body of water of: Yemen.

Middle of the lake: 15.40° N, 45.24° E

The story behind it

Yemen has no rivers that flow all year. Instead it has wadis: valleys that fill with water after heavy rain and are dry or almost dry the rest of the time. The Sabaeans built the Great Dam of Marib in this valley in about the 8th century BC. The old dam finally broke around 570–575 AD and was never repaired; the Quran tells of this great flood. In 1986 a new dam of earth was opened about 3 km upstream of the ancient ruins. It is 38 metres high and 763 metres long, and the lake behind it can store up to 398 million cubic metres of water for the fields on the plains around Marib. Today the reservoir covers about 30 km², but it has been shrinking as its water level falls. Yemen has no natural lake of this size, so this reservoir is the largest lake in the country.

Find it on the globe

Marib Reservoir is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.