page_title: Ancient South Arabian art
section_title: Religious architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Ancient South Arabian art / Architecture / Religious architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: 3d model of Sabaean altar found in the vicinity of Barran temple in Marib
context_page_description: Ancient South Arabian art was the art of the Pre-Islamic cultures of the southern Arabian peninsula, which was produced from the 3rd millennium BC until the 7th century AD.
context_section_description: Compared to secular structures, temples are generally better known, so that it has been possible to develop a possible typology and history of development. In the following, the systems proposed by Jürgen Schmidt and (in more detail) M. Jung are described, which take into account both the floor plans and the actual appearance of the structure. Comparatively few temples have been excavated to date, so these schemas remain provisional.
  The oldest south Arabian sanctuaries belong to the prehistoric period and were simple stone monoliths, sometimes surrounded by stone circles or mortarless masonry walls. In a second phase, actual temples were constructed. These temples were simple rectangular stone structures without roofs. Their interiors were initially very different from one another. Some cult buildings at Jabal Balaq al-Ausaṭ southwest of Ma'rib, which consist of a courtyard and a tripartite cella, provide a link to a temple type found only in Saba, which had a rectangular ground plan and a propylon and was divided into two parts - an inner courtyard with pillars on three sides and a tripartite cella. Schmidt includes in this type the temple of the moon god Wadd built around 700 BC between Ma'rib and Sirwah at Wadd ḏū-Masmaʿ, as well as the temple built by Yada'il Dharih I at Al-Masajid, which is surrounded by a rectangular wall. Later examples of this schema are found at Qarnawu (5th century BC) and Al-Huqqa (1st century BC). The entrance hall of the great Temple of Awwam in Ma'rib might belong to this group. This temple dates from the 9th-5th centuries BC and consisted of an oval ashlar structure which was over 100 metres long and was linked to a rectangular entrance hall, which was surrounded by a peristyle consisting of 32 five-metre high monolithic pillars. Only a few traces of this structure remain today.
  In the other kingdoms, this type contrasted with the hypostyle 'multi-support temples' which were built with square, rectangular or even asymmetrical ground plans and were surrounded by regularly spaced columns. In contrast to the aforementioned Sabaean temples, these structures were not arranged around a cella or an altar. Initially these temple contained six or eight pillars, but later they ranged up to thirty-five. Klaus Schippmann has identified yet another type: the Hadhramite 'terrace temple', seven examples of which are known to date. All these temples are accessed by a great stairway, which leads up to an enclosed terrace, on top of which stands a cella with a podium.
  It is still unclear whether there were images of deities, but the statuettes of humans which were dedicated in the sanctuary of Ma'rib demonstrate that highly developed bronze casts existed by the middle of the 1st century, on which the individual donor was recorded by means of an inscription. Stone pedestals with dedicatory inscriptions show that votive statuettes made of precious metals and bronze were created in Himyar until late antiquity. There were also alabaster statuettes - figures wearing smooth, knee-length robes, with their arms outstretched.
caption: 3d model of Sabaean altar found in the vicinity of Barran Temple in Marib
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