With its long sea border between eastern and western civilizations, Yemen has long existed at a crossroads of cultures with a strategic location in terms of trade on the west of the Arabian Peninsula. Large settlements for their era existed in the mountains of northern Yemen as early as 5000 BCE.
The Sabaean Kingdom came into existence in at least the 11th century BCE. The four major kingdoms or tribal confederations in South Arabia were Saba, Hadramout, Qataban, and Ma’in. Saba’ is thought to be biblical Sheba and was the most prominent federation. The Sabaean rulers adopted the title Mukarrib generally thought to mean unifier, or a priest-king, or the head of the confederation of South Arabian kingdoms, the “king of the kings”. The role of the Mukarrib was to bring the various tribes under the kingdom and preside over them all. The Sabaeans built the Great Dam of Marib around 940 BCE. The dam was built to withstand the seasonal flash floods surging down the valley.