{"id":22570,"date":"2025-10-20T12:19:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T12:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/?p=22570"},"modified":"2025-10-20T12:19:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T12:19:47","slug":"project-masam-clears-ancient-city-of-timna-protecting-yemens-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/project-masam-clears-ancient-city-of-timna-protecting-yemens-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Masam clears ancient city of Timna, protecting Yemen\u2019s heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"357\" data-end=\"564\">The Masam Landmine Clearance Project &#8211; Yemen continues its humanitarian mission in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/in-pictures-project-masam-restores-safety-and-agriculture-to-shabwah-after-mine-clearance\/\">Shabwah<\/a> Governorate, working to protect civilians and safeguard Yemen\u2019s cultural heritage from the threat of landmines.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"566\" data-end=\"859\">Project Masam\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/the\/\">demining teams<\/a> have announced the full clearance of the archaeological city of Timna, located in the Usaylan District &#8211; the historic capital of the ancient Kingdom of Qataban &#8211; after Houthi militias had turned the site into a minefield during their occupation of the area.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"566\" data-end=\"859\">The Kingdom of Qataban, which flourished between the 8th century BCE and the 2nd century CE, was one of southern Arabia\u2019s great ancient kingdoms, known for its trade in frankincense and myrrh, and its sophisticated architecture. Today, Timna stands as one of Yemen\u2019s most significant archaeological treasures, bearing witness to this long and storied history.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"861\" data-end=\"1250\">Shabwah is among Yemen\u2019s most heavily contaminated governorates. Years of conflict saw landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted around homes, roads, and farmland &#8211; and even at archaeological and cultural sites &#8211; to restrict movement and control access. These explosives continue to threaten lives, hinder development, and endanger Yemen\u2019s irreplaceable historical legacy.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1252\" data-end=\"1387\">Local resident Abdulrab bin Salem Shanoun confirmed that the teams had restored safety to the site after years of danger, saying: &#8220;The militia turned the site into a death zone, but the Masam project cleared it and brought it back to life. It represents our heritage and history.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1544\" data-end=\"1812\">Clearing the ancient city of Timna marks an important step in protecting Yemen\u2019s cultural identity. Heritage sites like Timna are not only part of the country\u2019s past, they are vital to its recovery, offering opportunities for education, tourism, and national pride.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1814\" data-end=\"2057\">This operation forms part of Project Masam\u2019s wider efforts to clear archaeological and cultural landmarks, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/project-masam-continues-to-clear-the-haid-bin-aqeel-archaeological-area-in-shabwah\/\">Hayed bin Aqeel<\/a> and other historic areas across Shabwah, to preserve lives and safeguard humanity\u2019s shared cultural heritage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Masam Landmine Clearance Project &#8211; Yemen continues its humanitarian mission in Shabwah Governorate, working to protect civilians and safeguard Yemen\u2019s cultural heritage from the threat of landmines. Project Masam\u2019s demining teams have announced the full clearance of the archaeological city of Timna, located in the Usaylan District &#8211; the historic capital of the ancient&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-18","description-off"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22572,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22570\/revisions\/22572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}