This ancient Himyarite archaeological site is one of the largest in the Yemen. In the local language the name means the fortress of Māriya. The meaning of the word[which?] is disputed. The site lies 11 km west of the town of Dhamar. It is important as a large escarpment site partly of late pre-Islamic date. Inside one of the four city gates there is a text written in Sabaic, describes the roads in the area.
Krista Lewis, Space and the Spice of Life: Food, Landscape, and Politics in Ancient Yemen, unpub. Dissertation, Univ. Chicago 2005.
Paul Yule, Late Ḥimyarite Vulture Reliefs, in: eds. W. Arnold, M. Jursa, W. Müller, S. Procházka, Philologisches und Historisches zwischen Anatolien und Sokotra, Analecta Semitica In Memorium Alexander Sima (Wiesbaden 2009), 447–455, ISBN978-3-447-06104-9