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Ancient crypt discovered [ Yemen ]
Yemen Observer ^ | Sunday, March 7, 2010 | Iscander al-Mamari

Posted on 03/07/2010 7:10:30 PM PST by SunkenCiv

Tucked away in Ans directorate of Dhamar governorate, a local stumbled across an ancient crypt within a known archaeological area, while digging a well for drinking water. According to preliminary examinations, the crypt extends anywhere between 150 and 180 meters in length and reaches over 9 meters in height.

Police in Dhamar governorate confirmed that the name of the local who stumbled across this magnificent find is Anwar Abdu-Rabbuh al-Kooli. Upon finding the crypt buried in the ground, al-Kooli reported the site to the local authorities. The police then secured the site to prevent any further tampering or access to the culturally significant area.

"The construction methods and style of the crypt indicate that it is very old, perhaps between 2100 or 2200 years old, from the Himyarite Period. This would mean it predates the arrival of Islam within Yemen," speculated Ali Daif Allah al-Sanabani, the Director of the General Authority for Antiquities in Dhamar governorate. "This is just a guess, as I had mentioned before, as we have not yet had an opportunity to apply the scientific rigors to the site in order to extract an exact date."

"This is not the first such tomb we have discovered. We are capable of doing a preliminary evaluation of its age because we have studied many similar tombs of virtually the same form and construction," added Ali. "It is carved out of the mountain; its ceiling are from the mountain, but part of the ceiling is handmade."

In unrelated news from the same directorate, police in Dawran reported the death of a young 25-year-old prospector. The young man was killed while prospecting for onyx in the Ghader Mountains when a landslide buried the area he was working on.

(Excerpt) Read more at yobserver.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; hatshepsut; queenofsheba; sheba; solomon; yemen
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To: SunkenCiv

Narrated Al-Bugheerer bin Stu’pidi:

Allah’s Apostle said, “There is none amongst the Muslims who can fill an empty crypt with headless Infidels so fast as me!”


21 posted on 03/07/2010 9:37:00 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (God wants a Liberal or RINO hanging from every tree. Tar & feathers optional extras.)
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To: SunkenCiv

The Hebrews were said to come to Caanan around 1400 to 1300(some say 1500) BC, there were then 400 years during which the Judges of the Hebrews reigned, then around 1000 bc Saul the first king reigned. There was another 400 years or so of Kings and prophets, a period of slavery lasting 70 years before a limited return of nationhood, then a time known as the 400 “silent years” until Christ would come. Now I know the timing of these events isn’t perfect and folks tend to slide the “time scales back and forth a bit” to try to make things fit. We know about when Solomon ruled (in the 900 to 800 BC period or might have ruled as early as 1200 BC depending on who you read and how early the placement of the arrival of the Hebrews is positioned). We know from the Bible that the Hebrews were under the judges for 400 years before they demanded to be ruled under kings. Then you have Saul, David, then Solomon. After Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel got divided!
During the reign of Solomon, the Queen of Sheba visited according to the Bible. So the real key is when the Hebrews arrived to Israel because after that, the reigns of the kings after the time of the judges(400 years) are more or less recorded chronologically, up until the destruction of the Northern Kingdom and years later, the enslavement of Judah by Nebuchednezzar and the Babylonians.

Somewhere in a span of 1200 to 800 BC, Solomon reigned and the Queen of Sheba visited him.


22 posted on 03/08/2010 4:54:38 AM PST by mdmathis6
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To: yarddog

Yemen was never called Ethiopia. The Queen of Sheba was (as Josephus stated) the Pharaoh of Egypt, and at that time (and at various other times as well) Egypt also ruled Nubia.


23 posted on 03/08/2010 6:53:56 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Freedom is Priceless.)
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To: mdmathis6
...around 1000 bc Saul the first king reigned. There was another 400 years or so of Kings and prophets...
Saul was succeeded by David, who was succeeded by Solomon.
24 posted on 03/08/2010 6:55:22 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Freedom is Priceless.)
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To: Zajko

There’s a coffeetable book, uh, around here somewhere (or maybe I left it somewhere else I frequent) with some very nice photos of loads of various little-studied (gee, I wonder why) pre-Islamic antiquities in Saudi Arabia; but I just doubt these size estimates.


25 posted on 03/08/2010 6:58:37 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Freedom is Priceless.)
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To: Fred Nerks

And the Marib Dam...


26 posted on 03/08/2010 6:59:01 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Freedom is Priceless.)
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To: hinckley buzzard

Well, only eight hundred, but I agree. :’)


27 posted on 03/08/2010 6:59:22 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Freedom is Priceless.)
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To: SunkenCiv

“Then you have Saul, David, then Solomon. After Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel got divided”

Gee ya didn’t read all my post, did ya?


28 posted on 03/08/2010 7:15:45 AM PST by mdmathis6
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To: mdmathis6

I did. Solomon wasn’t two hundred years after Saul.


29 posted on 03/08/2010 7:39:37 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Freedom is Priceless.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Yes, I know Yemen was never called Ethiopia. What the ancients referred to as Ethiopia was sometimes the Sudan or Eritrea or even North Africa such as Libya.

For some reason, people began saying the Queen came from Ethiopia, not sure why. Scholars have long established that Sheba was in modern Yemen.


30 posted on 03/08/2010 7:52:02 AM PST by yarddog
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To: SunkenCiv

No David ruled 40 years after Saul, then Solomon ruled. I didn’t say Solomon ruled 200 years after Saul. I was trying to point out that some experts differ as to when the Hebrews arrived , but when they did arrive, they lived 400 years under the Judges. The times of the Kings began after that and during the reign of Solomon, the Queen of Sheba came to see Solomon! You keep saying that the Queen of Sheba existed earlier than Solomon’s reign though the Bible says differently. Unless there were several Queen’s of Sheba existing at different points in history.


31 posted on 03/08/2010 11:26:16 AM PST by mdmathis6
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To: mdmathis6
Solomon lived about 800BC or so
Your words, not mine. David didn't rule 40 years after Saul, if by that you mean he took the throne 40 years after Saul. Solomon's reign immediately followed David's, was a long reign, and was the highwater mark of the kingdom. I haven't said that the Queen of Sheba existed earlier than Solomon's reign -- I said that there was no Kingdom of Sheba in Yemen. The Queen of Sheba was an Egyptian ruler.
32 posted on 03/08/2010 12:17:22 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Freedom is Priceless.)
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To: yarddog

Scholars have never done any such thing. There was no room for a kingdom of Sheba anywhere else, so the *speculation* that maybe it was in Yemen led to people looking for something that wasn’t there.


33 posted on 03/08/2010 12:18:54 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Freedom is Priceless.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Well it has been nearly forty years since I wrote that paper but unless something has changed, there was no real doubt as to where the kingdom of Sheba was.

I am too old and worn out to go do the research again. I do recall much of the original research had been done by Biblical scholars.

I also know that Simon the Ethiopian was from what we now call Libya, tho as I mentioned before, that designation has changed a lot even varied back in ancient times.


34 posted on 03/08/2010 12:31:14 PM PST by yarddog
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To: Fred Nerks; SunkenCiv
The Marib Dam was the first thing that came to my mind, too.

People there have been fighting desertification since the Sahara and Arabian deserts began drying out after the last ice age, I assume.

35 posted on 03/08/2010 12:42:23 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: yarddog

There was literally never anything but speculation. There are no inscriptions referring to anything like it. Tarshish wasn’t in Spain, yet that idea has a huge following. It doesn’t take much (or anything) to get stuff started, and it takes on a life of its own.


36 posted on 03/08/2010 1:05:34 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Freedom is Priceless.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Yes, it isn’t the easiest part of the world to travel round :) - I managed to get up to the Nabatean burial site at Mada’in Saleh in Saudi a few years back, which is stunning: almost in the same league as Petra. Talking of books, the best (by far) that I’ve come across pertaining to the history of this part of the world is ‘Arabian Sands’ by the British explorer Wilfred Thesiger. Some fascinating mentions of ancient tombs he came across in the Rub’ Al-Khali (Empty Quarter) in Oman, which are quite likely still sitting there unexplored and uninvestigated.


37 posted on 03/08/2010 5:46:25 PM PST by Zajko
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