Awwam

Eight monolithic pillars (row of pillars of the propylon ) seven meters high mark the entrance to the temple courtyard of the Awwam temple

The Awwam ( old South Arabic alwm , Arabic معبد أوام, DMG maʿbad Auwām  'Awwam Temple',حرم بلقيس / Ḥaram Bilqīs orمحرم بلقيس / Maḥram Bilqīs ) is a Sabaean temple near Ma'rib in what is now Yemen . It was founded by Mukarrib Yada'il Dharih I , who lived between the 7th and 5th centuries BC. Ruled, established.

Most of the temple is occupied by an uncovered courtyard, which is enclosed by a massive stone wall with an irregular oval floor plan. To the north is an entrance hall, which is made up of an open courtyard and a multi-storey colonnade. On the inner wall of the entrance hall there were several dozen of the most important inscriptions from the late Sabaean Empire. In ancient times the hall was completely surrounded by columns, and the inside of the temple was reached through a wide door. A row of monolithic pillars stands up to four meters high. On the east and west side there are 32 more pillars, all of them supports for a former roof stalls.

The Awwam was partially excavated in 1951-52 by the American Foundation for the Study of Man under the direction of Wendell Phillips and under the most difficult conditions. After misunderstandings (suspected looting, alleged explorations for oil production measures) the excavations were stopped and only continued in 2000 by a German research team from the German Archaeological Institute . They came across a burial site with high-quality grave accessories such as drinking and incense vessels made of alabaster. The speculation that nearly 20,000 dead could have been buried there suggests that the Awwam Temple must have been a frequented pilgrimage destination.

See also

• Architectural history of South Arabia

literature

• Richard Le Baron Bowen Jr .; Frank P. Albright: Archaeological Discoveries in South Arabia ( Publications of the American Foundation for the Study of Man , Volume 2) Hopkins Baltimore, 1958.
• Andrey Korotayev . Pre-Islamic Yemen . Wiesbaden : Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1996. ISBN 3-447-03679-6 .
• Walter W. Müller (ed.) / Hermann von Wissmann : The story of Sabaʾ II. The great empire of the Sabaeans up to its end in the early 4th century BC. Chr. (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class. Session Reports, Volume 402) Publishing House of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1982 ISBN 3700105169 .
• Horst Kopp (Ed.): Geography of Yemen , Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag Wiesbaden, 2005, ISBN 3-89500-500-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Horst Kopp (editor): Geography of Yemen , Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag Wiesbaden, 2005, ISBN 3-89500-500-2 , page 198
2. ↑ Iris Gerlach , The excavations of the German Archaeological Institute Sana'a in the Sabaean cemetery of the Awam Temple in Marib , In: Catalog Munich, pages 113-123

Coordinates: 15 ° 24 ′ 11.6 "  N , 45 ° 20 ′ 35.2"  E