KING SOLOMON’S GOLD

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2308, 28 November 1925, Page 7

KING SOLOMON’S GOLD

LEGENDARY LAND OP OPHIR

WAS IT IN THE BAST OF IN THE WEST ? The mention of Ophir, the land of gold, whose mines contributed to the splendour of King Solomon’s Temple, .till stirs the fancy. Since Alexandrian times fortune hunters, archaeologists and explorers have sought the country of ivory» apes and peacocks. L'o the many speculations on the exact location of Ophir - a new one has just been added. From Vienna Ur. von Hauch reports that he ha s discovered that 3phir lay in the Western Hemisphere; .hat the long voyage which kept Solomon's fleet abroad for three years took it to South America. Dr. von Hauch has recently been exploring the forests of Peru. He 3ays he found an Indian tribe of soo with features of a Jewish cast and a language containing many word® resembling the ancient Hebrew. The name of Solomon had been not infrequently bestowed upon men of the tribe. In the Pampas del Sacramento the natives told Dr. von Hauch legends of seafaring men who, in times almost forgotten, had xmtde their way to the banks of the Elver Hualla, where they carried off great quantities of precious ore. The land on the shore of the Hualla they called Ophira, Dr. von Hauch says that he believes that the ancient mariners of the legend may have been King Solomon’s Phoenician sailors. Some Earlier Theories. Down through the ages Ophir has been like a mirage rising from the mists of the unknown past, glittering with gold and gems, only to vanish again into the vapours of speculation. Many have been the theories advanced regarding it, the most accepted of which have placed it In one of three countries —India, Arabia or South Africa. The most conclusive evidence found up ’to the present day seems to point to the hinterlands of South-eastern Africa between the Zambesi end the Sabi Rivers. Yet Dr. Hauch la hot the first to think that Opnir may have been in. the Western Hemisphere. When Columbus set foot on the West Indies he believed that he had discovered the home of Solomon’s riches. Certain scientists sweep aside the suggestion that Ophir lay In Arabia with the statement that In that case Solomon would scarcely have required so fine an argosy, since his caravans were familiar with the overland routes It was not until the latter half of the past century that attention was fixed upon the hinterlands of South-eastern Africa. In 1876 a German traveller, Carl Mauch, came upon the extensive ruins of Zimbabwe, south of the Zambesi River. He was not the first to discover the relios of the ancient mines. In the sixteenth century the Portuguese were told of their existence when on their voyages to the Indies, they took the eastern coast of Africa from ihe Arabs, Cento, in the seventeenth century, wrote: "The richest of all mines are those of Massapa. where the Arabs point out one as the Abyssinian mine from which the Queen of Sheba took the greater part of the gold when she gave Solomon for the temple. And this Is.indeed, Ophir, for the Kaffirs call it Pur, and the Arabs call it Afur.

Inquiries In Africa.

An Englishman, Mr. T. J. Bent, followed in the footsteps of Herr Mauch He too saw the ruins of mines and strong defences, and was convinced that the cyclopean walls were the work of the ancient Phoenicians. He had found, he was sure, the remnants of an ancient settlement —in fact, the very mines from which the servants who boarded the navies of Tharshish and Hiram had fetched home the yellow ore. He saw that the mines had been exploited after the most approved fashion. They were sunk from 600 feet to 900 feet, and in some oases went down even to 4000 feet. It has been estimated that the number of diggings reached 75,000. Dr. Carl Peters made still further discoveries in the section lying between the Zambesi and the Sabi Rivers about a quarter of a century ago. strengthening the belief of many historians that most of the gold of Egypt and Arabia was obtained from the Zimbabwe mines. He makes an attempt to link the Ophir of King Solomon with the Punt of Hat-Shep-sut,, Queen of Egypt, in 1500 B.C. The mines were long known to the Egyptians, he believed, and from them was derived much of their wealth. The freight shipped northward to Egypt and the cargoes which found their way into Palestine were of much the same nature. Suggested Proofs. The explorer holds that the relations between the Phoenicians and the Egyptions were intimate, while the Semitic race, in all probability, followed the routes opened up by the latter. Did not the two Kings, David and Solomon, own the seaport of Eziongeber on the Gulf of Akaba, the Red Sea port which was a gateway leading into the sphere of the Egyptians ? Professor Peters found proofs, he believed; that the ancient mining district contained relics of both Phoenician and Egyptian influence. And bringing philogy to his aid he strengthens his argument by showing that the name of Africa is Latin in its origin, an adjective taken from the Hebrew of Ophir, or the Sabaen Afur. “Africa,” he wrote, "in the language of the ancient Semites, was Afur or Ophir.”