Travel Guide Baraqish

This city, located 125 kilometres from Sana'a, was formerly called Yathill. It was part of the kingdom of Maïn which became independent of the Saba Kingdom in the century before our era. Maïn looked after agriculture and trade caravans. This kingdom possessed the cities of Garnaw (now Maïn), which was the political capital of Garnaw (now Baraqish) and later in Nashan (now As-Sauda). The commercial activity of the Manéens was judged unworthy by the Sud aristocrats and Maïn was the least respected of the kingdoms. In the th century before our age, an inscription mentioned for the first time the name of Yathill in a text relating to irrigation. In 700 BC, the king Sabéen Karibil Ouatar surrounded him in a fortification. It is then rebuilt between the fourth century and the second century BC in - 26 or - 25, the Roman governor of Egypt invades the kingdom of Maïn on the orders of the Emperor Augustus, with an army of Nabataeans and Juifs Jews. The town of Yathill is conquered. In the th and th centuries, Baraqish was inhabited by the imam Al-Mansour bin Allah, son of the imam Hamza. He lodges in a part of the temple. The town was uninhabited in the th century and then occupied again in the th and th centuries. It was definitively abandoned in the th century. From 1976 to 1986, the French Archaeological Mission made the survey and the study of monumental inscriptions. In 1986, the Italian Archaeological Mission began excavation work on the site.Today, its access is very difficult for tourists and the fort serves as a police garrison.