It is mentioned by Pliny in his Natural History toward the middle of the 1st century CE as a royal residence.
The anonymous Egyptian-Roman author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea of the same century, writes that Saphar lies nine days' further inland from the Red Sea, the capital and residence of Charibael, the king of two nations: of the Homerites and the Sabaeans.
The city was the capital of Himyarites (110 BCE - 525 CE), a powerful South Arabian empire which exerted its influence all the way to Mecca. Zafar was one of the most prosperous and celebrated cities in southern Arabia prior to the Axumite conquest.
Anciently walled Zafar is one of the largest archaeological sites in Arabia. A surface area is calculated to 110 hectares. But the settlement is uneven and smaller than this. Ancient settlement occurs inside and outside the ancient city defences.
After the extinction of the Ḥimyar kingdom and the rise of Islam, Ẓafār gradually fell into decay. Today it is a village with a population of some 450 located 8 air km south-south-east of YarTm, the next city.
City of Ẓafār (or Dhafar) in Yemen
