Dhahaban
ذهبان | |
---|---|
Village | |
Coordinates: 15°25′23″N 44°10′36″E / 15.42319°N 44.17673°E [1] | |
Country | Yemen |
Governorate | Amanat al-Asimah |
District | Bani al-Harith |
Elevation | 7,674 ft (2,339 m) |
Time zone | UTC+3 (Yemen Standard Time) |
Dhahaban ( Arabic: ذهبان Dhahabān), also Dhahban, is a town in Yemen, located on the outskirts of the capital Sanaa in Bani al-Harith District of Amanat al-Asimah Governorate. [1] It is on the Sanaa plain, a bit south of the point where the Wadi Zahr opens out onto the plain. [2] 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. [3]
According to the 10th-century writer al-Hamdani, Dhahaban was named after Dhahabān b. Nawf Dhī Thaʽlabān b. Sharaḥbīl, of the tribe of Himyar. [2] 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 and Hermann von Wissmann, "the pronunciation of this name is now closer to Dhahabān." [2]
Dhahaban's power station, located 10 km northwest of Sanaa, was supplied by power lines from the Ma'rib power plant. [3] It is also capable of generating its own electricity, with an original capacity of 20 megawatts, with an additional 30 megawatts added in the 2000s. [3]