A MYSTERY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XX, Issue 2118, 23 May 1925, Page 2

A MYSTERY.

REMARKABLE! RUINS

AFRICAN FIND

A group* of archaeologists have been inspecting the famous ruins of Zimbabwe. in Rhodesia, which suggest that there may once have been a civilisation in the heart ot Central Africa as old as Itoimo, or even oldei. At Zimbabwe there is a strange conical tower, so old that even 400 years ago the* natives could tell nothing of its history. It is skilfully built of blocks of hewn granite and decorated with a curious chevron pattern. All around are traces of ancient gold workings, and even of irrigation works with gradients calculated with a nicety equal to* that of modern engineers with instruments. The natives of this part of Africa have never* been known to build stone structures capable of resisting the ravages of centuries, yet here iu tlieir midst is a tower built by as skilled workmen as the ancient Egyptians, and no one knows who) built it. In the opinion of several archaeologists who have been investigating the ruins, it is possible that Zimbabwe may be a relic of some colony of ono of the old civilisations of Asia or Northern Africa, and perhaps the very spdt from which the Queen of Sheba mined tine gold for the building of the temple of Solomon. This part of Rhodesia can be reached from the sea by means of the Sabi River, which Hows into the Indian o|;ean, and down which Phoenician galleys may have once sailed bearing the gold of Africa to India, Egypt, and Arabia.

Ages ago, in the year 915, the Arabian historian Massoude visited Sofala, at the mouth off the Sabi River, and found it the centre ot a nourishing trade in gelid and ivory between the natives and the Arabs and Persians; far earlier still, in 610 8.0., Herodotus relates that King Neplios equipped a Phoenician expedition that sailed round Africa, returning by way of the Pillars of Hercules ; and in the early sixteenth century two Portuguese historians, do Couto and dos Santos, mention that there was then a tradition among the Moors and Arabs tradin East Africa that Zimbabwe was indeed the Queen of Sheba’s mine. Perhaps the irrigation works were made to ensure sufficient food for a large colony of miners, and tlie tower is the last relic of their town. At all events, it seems certain that Central Africa was known to the ancients before Vasco de Gama rounded the Cape.

It is very strange that up to now so little attention has been paid to the Zimbabwe ruins. It may be that they are merely the work of medieval Indian or Arabian traders, but even then they must have a romantic story. But if they are the work of an ancient Semitic dynasty—the race from which the Jews sprang—they are the key to a missing chapter of history.