Ghumdan Palace built

800 BCE.

Shown on the map at 15.353°, 44.214°.

Ghumdan Palace, also Qasir Ghumdan or Ghamdan Palace, is an ancient fortified palace in Sana'a, Yemen, going back to the ancient Kingdom of Saba. All that remains of the ancient site (Ar. khadd) of Ghumdan is a field of tangled ruins opposite the first and second of the eastern doors of the Jami‘ Al Kabeer Mosque (Great Mosque of Sana'a). This part of Sana'a forms an eminence which is known to contain the debris of ancient times. The place is located on the extreme southeastern end of Sanaa's old walled city, al-Qaṣr, just west of where the Great Mosque of Sana'a was later built, and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Old City of Sana'a. It is sometimes referred to as Ghumdan Tower. According to Arab geographer and historian, Al-Hamdani (c. 893-945), the foundation stones of Ghumdan Palace were laid by Shem, the son of Noah, and finished by the Sabaean monarch Ilī-Sharḥa Yaḥḍib (ca. 8th century BCE), the father of Bilqis. Others say that it was built by Sha'r Awtar who walled the city of Sana'a, while yet others suggest that it may date to pre-Islamic times, constructed by the Sabaeans during the reign of the last great Sabaean King El Sharih Yahdhib (ca. 60-20 BCE).

Text from the Wikipedia article Ghumdan Palace, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Everything else in 800 BCE

HistoryLayer draws the world as it was in any year from 123,000 BCE to 2026. Move the slider and the borders redraw for that year; the map carries 23,890 events, 12,790 people, 837 wars and 13,183 cities, each one readable in place. Signing in is optional and lets you keep what you find.

HistoryLayer
1914CE
World Wars
123,000 BCE2026 CE
54 stops — one per surviving map on file, evenly spaced drag the pin · ←→ steps one stop the same 54 stops by true elapsed time ↑
Map & filters
Show on the map
Filter
Colour by
Polity Empire