Ma'rib Dam and irrigation project—a wonder in the desert

Building major infrastructure projects in adverse social and climatic conditions is never easy.The Ma'rib irrigation project in Yemen is a classic case, with the £65 million scheme taking over 30 years to complete.Civil unrest, tribal feuds, flash floods and windblown sand all played their part in its delay, but work is finally scheduled to be completed next year.A total of 74 km2, including nearly 50 km2 of former desert, will soon be irrigated by the country's largest dam, enabling the land to be farmed again—as it was in ancient times. This paper describes the design and prolonged construction of this technologically straightforward yet hugely challenging and beneficial civil engineering project.