From the Red Sea coast to the limits of the Empty Quarter Desert are numerous ruins of small and large dams made of earth and stone.

[citation needed] In 2023, along with other landmarks of the ancient Kingdom of Saba, Marib Dam was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

[citation needed] The Sabaeans built the dam to capture the periodic monsoon rains which fall on the nearby mountains and so irrigate the land around the city.

They undertook further reconstruction, creating a structure 14 metres (46 feet) high, with extensive waterworks at both the northern and southern ends, five spillway channels, two masonry-reinforced sluices, a settling pond, and a 1,000-meter canal to a distribution tank.

The Muslim historian al-Isfahani (whose Annals were completed in 961 CE) maintains[9] that a dam breach occurred some 400 years before the rise of Islam, but Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī[10] assigns it to the time of Abyssinian rule.

[citation needed] Ancient South Arabian sources report that in about 145 BC, the dam suffered a major breach during the war between the people of Raydān and the Kingdom of Sabaʾ, and that is the very breach that many scholars consider to have caused the Sayl al-ˁArim (Arabic: سَيْل ٱلْعَرِم, Flood of the ‘Arim) mentioned in the Quran; it is also mentioned in Arab proverbs which speak about the hands of Sabaʾ having separated at that time.

[citation needed] The fighting between the Raydānites and the Sabaeans delayed the repair of the dam, and this caused devastating losses of crops and fruit, leading large numbers of people to disperse in search of new land capable of supporting life, so huge migrations ensued.

[citation needed] It is still uncertain though whether it was that particular breach that caused the "flood of ˁArim" or not, since some migrations certainly took place in the 2nd or 3rd centuries CE, and they are also ascribed to the breaking of the Dam of Maʾrib.

[citation needed] Generally speaking, the dam was repaired twice shortly before the coming of Islam, once by Sharḥabīl Yaˁfar bin Abī Karab Yasˁad in 450, and by Abrahah in 543.

[citation needed] The final destruction of the Dam of Maʾrib is alluded to in the Quran (34: 15–17):[14] لَقَدْ كَانَ لِسَبَإٍ فِي مَسْكَنِهِمْ آيَةٌ ۖ جَنَّتَانِ عَن يَمِينٍ وَشِمَالٍ ۖ كُلُوا مِن رِّزْقِ رَبِّكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لَهُ ۚ بَلْدَةٌ طَيِّبَةٌ وَرَبٌّ غَفُورٌ، فَأَعْرَضُوا فَأَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ سَيْلَ الْعَرِمِ وَبَدَّلْنَاهُم بِجَنَّتَيْهِمْ جَنَّتَيْنِ ذَوَاتَيْ أُكُلٍ خَمْطٍ وَأَثْلٍ وَشَيْءٍ مِّن سِدْرٍ قَلِيلٍ "There was for [the tribe of] Sabaʾ in their dwelling place a sign: two [fields of] gardens on the right and on the left.

[18] The dam was considered by people inside and outside Yemen to have a positive effect on the agriculture and economy of the region of Ma'rib, and the country in general.