When was the old Marib dam in Yemen built, the one the moslems allowed to fall to pieces and be destroyed.
That one got piled up higher and higher, without anything like what he’d call engineering studies, in order to retain ever-more water. And that didn’t work out, it finally let go, and was never rebuilt. The dam failure was prior to the birth of the Big Old Mo, 6th c AD, construction was by the Nabataeans (or, others) in the 6th c BC., so it stood in some form for over 1000 years. Not too shab’.
http://nabataea.net/marib.html