Dhahaban ( ), also Dhahban, is a town in
Yemen
Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...
, located on the outskirts of the capital
Sanaa
Sanaa, officially the Sanaa Municipality, is the ''de jure'' capital and largest city of Yemen. The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate, but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrative unit. At an elevation ...
in
Bani al-Harith District
Bani Al Harith District ( ''Mudayrīyah Bani Al Ḥarith'') is a district of the Amanat Al Asimah Governorate, Yemen
Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Sa ...
of
Amanat al-Asimah Governorate
Sanaa, officially the Sanaa Municipality, is the ''de jure'' capital and largest List of cities in Yemen, city of Yemen. The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate, but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrativ ...
.
It is on the Sanaa plain, a bit south of the point where the
Wadi Zahr
Wadi Zahr ( ), also spelled Wadi Dahr ( ), is a wadi in Yemen, located just north of Sanaa on the western edge of the Sanaa plain. It is watered by a perennial stream whose source is the large catchment area on the eastern slopes of Jabal An-Nabi ...
opens out onto the plain.
Before 2015, Dhahaban's power station was the main source of power in the Sanaa metro area, although the city's main supplier of electricity was the power plant in
Ma'rib
Marib (; Old South Arabian: 𐩣𐩧𐩨/𐩣𐩧𐩺𐩨 ''Mryb/Mrb'') is the capital city of Marib Governorate, Yemen. It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of '' Sabaʾ'' (), which some scholars believe to be the ancient Sheba of bibl ...
.
Name and history
According to the 10th-century writer
al-Hamdani, Dhahaban was named after Dhahabān b. Nawf Dhī Thaʽlabān b. Sharaḥbīl, of the tribe of
Himyar
Himyar was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According to class ...
.
In 1989,
Robert T.O. Wilson described Dhahaban as a small village and wrote that, while the name was vocalized as ''Dhahbān'' by al-Hamdani, as well as by the modern writers
Muhammad al-Akwa
Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, ...
and
Hermann von Wissmann Hermann von Wissmann may refer to:
* Hermann Wissmann
Hermann Wilhelm Leopold Ludwig Wissmann, after 1890 Hermann von Wissmann (4 September 1853 – 15 June 1905), was a German explorer and administrator in Africa.
Biography
Born in Frankfurt ...
, "the pronunciation of this name is now closer to Dhahabān."
Energy
Dhahaban's power station, located 10 km northwest of Sanaa, was supplied by power lines from the Ma'rib power plant.
It is also capable of generating its own electricity, with an original capacity of 20
megawatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...
s, with an additional 30 megawatts added in the 2000s.
References
{{Reflist
Populated places in Sanaa Governorate
Towns in Yemen