Almaqah
Almaqah was the national deity of the Sabaeans of the pre-Islamic Yemeni kingdom of Saba', representing the Moon or Sun god. He was also worshipped in Dʿmt and Aksum in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The main center for his worship was at the Awwam Temple, which remained in use until the fourth century AD.
↻ synthesized from 4 sources
When
- First attested
- 1000 BCE
- Attested period
- -1000 – 300
- Historical notes
- Worship centered at Awwam Temple, which remained in use until the fourth century AD in pre-Islamic Yemen.
Relationships
Mentioned by
Sources
Source passages
“The Awwam Temple was the main oracular seat for Almaqah, and this was the case as early as the 7th century BC, although most inscriptions discovered at the site (amounting to several hundred) are from the first three Christian centuries.”
#3656 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5
“Kahl is mentioned along with the god Almaqah in a few inscriptions around the area of the Awwam Temple, including ZI 11 and Sh 31/33 where Kahl may occupy connotations of a solar deity. The latter reads:b‐ʾlmqhw bʿl ʾwm w‐b‐rbʿ‐hmw rmn w‐b‐šms‐hmw khlm w‐bʿlt nʿmn (‘with [the help of] ʾAlmaqah, the Lord”
#3716 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001
“Adolf Grohmann assumed that Nakrah was a sun goddess, which stood in Ma'in next to the moon god Almaqah and Venus Athtar.”
#3732 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5
“The Temple of Meqaber Gaʿewa near Wuqro in Tigray Region, Ethiopia is dedicated to the Sheban god Almaqah, and contains an altar which represents a miniature model of the Great Temple in Yeha. The inscription running around the top dedicates the altar to Almaqah.”
#19658 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001