QUEEN OF SHEBA'S MINES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 127, 21 February 1908, Page 10

QUEEN OF SHEBA'S MINES.

; 9 ; A bitter archaeological controversy is rag- . ing in Germany over the exact' location of the famous gold ' mines of the Queen of Sheba. Dr. Carl Peters, tho well-known explorer and former Governor of-German East Africa, has been lecturing' throughout' Germany to'tho eiTect that the Biblical Ophir gold region in Afrva, according to his dis- ' coveries, lies on tho Zambesi River. • Baron . von Falkenegg, also an : explorer, of note, > says that tho theory of Dr. Peters has. been i set up "in the interests of England.". 1 ' Baron Falkenegg writes: —"From the Bible it is incontrovertibly clear that the Queen of Sheba, i.e., Habesch, took the land route over Arabia. FroiVtho Harrar'region in tho neighbourhood of Djibuti, she sailed'to Yemen to somo Southern Arabian point, and tliero organised the great'caravan. In-all probability, as> ruler of Habesch. she was also ruler of Southern Arabia. Baron Falkenegg then discusses the "Colonial policy" which King Solomon, in common witli King Hiram of Phoenicia, carried out.'..' "\\'itli his friend' Hiram, tho Phoenician-sea-king, King Solomon established Colonies in Africa. The Phoenicians" furnished the f ships and tho' experienced sailors,' and tho ; Jewish King supplied, tho money and tho soldiers. ' I 1 rom what is to-day Tripoli, along all tho coasts of Africa, tho Phoenicians had their Colonies, in' North-West and-South- • •East Africa, all tho way to Habescn. The jremains of Phoenician structures of all sorts '.abound, throughout' Africa. - * "On that basis Dr. Peters rests his argu- • ment's that tho region- of the-'Simbabje' is the old legendary Opbir. •: Jhe gold ships - came from tho land 'Ofir'—that is, 'Africa.' • The richest deposits, however, were- revealed in the-Habesch district, or'what is to-day Abyssinia." . . One result of- the campaign'will be.cer- ■ tain benefit to the Sudan, wnero it is wellknown there exist great mineral wealth and untold agricultural possibilities, the pioneer in . exploring which was probably the Austrian Joseph itussegger, who, seventy years ago,, compiled aiid. illustrated -fifteen gigantio' volumes on the subject. Even now German . capitalists • and colonisers are' turning their - attention-in that direction; it was a German .citizen long resident in London,' Mr. .Charles Tuchmaun, who built the hotel v at Khartum \ and commenced to interest British investors. The efforts of the Hamburg-American Company in Nile navigation 1 are also appealing to German pride;' and it is: known tno' pros- ' pector and the land developer are beginning, oii behalf' of German, interests, to appear id increasing numbers l in the Sudan.