﴿ فَأَعْرَضُوا۟ فَأَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ سَيْلَ ٱلْعَرِمِ وَبَدَّلْنَٰهُم بِجَنَّتَيْهِمْ جَنَّتَيْنِ ذَوَاتَىْ أُكُلٍ خَمْطٍۢ وَأَثْلٍۢ وَشَىْءٍۢ مِّن سِدْرٍۢ قَلِيلٍۢ ﴾

“But they turned away [from Us], and so We let loose upon them a flood that overwhelmed the dams, and changed their two [expanses of luxuriant] gardens into a couple of gardens yielding bitter fruit, and tamarisks, and some few [wild] lote-trees:”

Sheba (Saba’) was a very developed community of ancient times. It was spread over the area at present known as Yemen. Its centre was the city of Maa’rib. In the period before Christ, it had made great progress and remained at its zenith for about one thousand years. The inhabitants of Sheba had spread their trade far and wide across land and sea and had constructed dams for irrigation purposes. Near Ma’rib, there was a large dam which was 14 meters high and about six hundred meters long. By this means, water from mountain streams was stored and distributed to the adjoining lands. In this way this whole area had become lush green and luxuriant gardens could be seen everywhere. All these developments had been possible thanks to the provision made by God. Therefore, the people of Sheba should have been grateful to their Lord. But, instead, they became neglectful and arrogant, as generally happens in the case of prosperous communities. Thereafter, the Ma’arib Dam started developing cracks. This was an initial warning, but they did not come to their senses. An earthquake shattered the dam irreparably in the seventh century A.D., as a result of which there were devastating floods and the whole area was destroyed. Moreover, due to the destruction of fertile soil, only wild bushes survived in this area. (The Encyclopaedia Britannica).