In Search of King Solomon's Mines

Overview

Shah's search began with a map in Jerusalem. The map showed a trail leading to the fabled mines of King Solomon, who built the first temple of Israel out of gold, mined from the land of Ophir. Solomon’s Mines have enthralled and tormented all those who have searched for them and superstition whispers of terrible curses that will befall anyone that finds them. Bewitched by the legends, Tahir Shah decided to take up the quest.

Chasing clues gathered from passed traveler’s tales, and local folklore to the Septuagint, the copper scroll, and the Kebra Negast, Shah was led to Ethiopia, whose empress traces descent from the son born to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and where gold has been mined for millennia.

In Harar, he fed wild hyenas that are said the guard Solomon’s treasure. With Samson, a miner-turner-taxi driver, he visited an illegal gold mine near Shakiso, where hundreds of men, women and children toiled in "a biblical Hell".

In the Emperor Haile Selassie's jeep, he explored the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, where the gold of Sheba is kept and ventures on to Afar, possibly ancient Ophir. Shah’s desire was to reach the cursed mountain of Tulu Wallel, where decades before an English adventurer called Frank Hayter claimed to have discovered the gold mines of King Solomon.

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