Aden's Pipe Dream
Penny Young investigates the Tawila tanks of Aden, in Yemen.
After decades of neglect, the unique series of water tanks of Aden, in Yemen, which were hollowed out of the volcanic rock at least 2,000 years ago, are to be restored and brought back into use.
It is not known who built the Tawila tanks, as they are called. To the frustration of historians, no date of origin nor any inscriptions have ever been found. The taxi drivers, who take tourists from Steamer Point to visit the tanks, tell them they were built during the time of the Queen of Sheba.
Although there is no historical evidence for the Queen of Sheba either, the early inhabitants of Aden would have known about the great dam of Manb which was built in the eastern deserts of Yemen by the Sabaeans around 700 BC. There are many other examples of cisterns and reservoirs in Yemen and east Africa across the Red Sea, although none on such a scale, is the Tawila tanks.
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