Shibam Kawkaban (Arabic: شبام كَوْكَبَان, romanized: Shibām Kawkabān) is a double town in Shibam Kawkaban District, Al Mahwit Governorate, Yemen, located 38 km west-northwest of Sanaa, the national capital. It consists of two distinct adjoining towns, Shibam (Arabic: شبام, romanized: Shibām) and Kawkaban (Arabic: كَوْكَبَان, romanized: Kawkabān). Shibam is sometimes also called "Shibam Kawkaban" in order to distinguish it from other towns called Shibam.

Shibam is a market town at the edge of a large agricultural plain; above it is the fortress-town of Kawkaban, at the summit of the cliffs to the southwest. Kawkaban, which means "two planets" in Arabic, is a sizeable town in its own right, and is known for its lavish tower-houses. Because of the fertile surrounding farmland, the defensive strength of the Kawkaban fortress, and the city's closeness to Sanaa, Shibam Kawkaban has been strategically important throughout Yemen's history.

It contains a fortified citadel about 2,931 m (9,616 ft) above sea level. It is built upon a precipitous hilltop, walled from the north and fortified naturally from the other directions. It was the capital of the Yuʿfirid dynasty (847-997), and was also home to a Jewish community until its demise in the mid-20th century. The city affords good views of the surrounding countryside.

The city features several old mosques: al Madrasa, al Mansoor, al Sharefa and Harabat. The old market is in the middle of the city. Old rainwater reservoirs can also be seen in the fortified town, named Meseda, Alasdad, and Sedalhamam.

According to the 10th-century writer Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani, there were four towns in Yemen named Shibam. To distinguish this Shibam from the others, it is sometimes suffixed as Shibam Kawkaban. Other historically used epithets include Shibam Aqyan, Shibam Ḥimyar, Shibam Yaḥbus, and Shibam Yuʿfir. According to al-Hamdani, the town had originally been called Yuḥbis, and had taken the name "Shibam" after a man of the Banu Hamdan tribe who had settled there. As for the name "Aqyan", it comes from the name of the Banu Dhu Kabir Aqyan dynasty which ruled the surrounding area in pre-Islamic times.

The name Shibām, which is somewhat common in Yemen, appears to refer to a peak or other elevated place. Landberg's Glossaire datînois records that in the Dathina region, there are words shabama (meaning "to be high") and shibām (meaning "height"). The places named Shibam are all located by peaks or cliffs, so the name is an appropriate one.

As for Kawkaban, al-Hamdani says it is named after a man named Kawkaban b. Dhi Sabal b. Aqyan, of the tribe of Himyar, but Robert T.O. Wilson says this eponym is "probably contrived". Wilson notes that al-Hamdani did mention another place called Kawkaban, which he said got its name "because it was adorned with silver bands."

The earliest mentions of Shibam Kawkaban are in 3rd-century inscriptions which identify it as the center of the Dhu Hagaran Shibam tribe.