An Age of Magic

Found at last - Solomon’s mine!

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It is a discovery straight out of Hollywood - something to really fire the imagination and show us that wonderful things really are still waiting to be discovered on this planet.

According to the Bible, Solomon was the third king of Israel. The son of King David, he was renowned for his wisdom, the size of his harem and the splendour of his kingdom. During his reign, he is said to have accumulated a huge fortune from mining and trading, some of which was spent on building the grand temple and opulent palace of Jerusalem.

Archaeologists and treasure-hunters have searched for the mines for more than a century since the best-selling Victorian novel, King Solomon’s Mines by H Rider Haggard, claimed they could hold a treasure of gold and diamonds. But now, it seems the real version could have been closer to home, supplying the king with copper.

The ancient mine was found in a desolate region south of the Dead Sea in southern Jordan in an area called Khirbat en-Nahas, which means ‘ruins of copper’ in Arabic.

The region was known in the Old Testament as the Kingdom of Edom. By Solomon’s time, it had become a vassal state, paying tribute to Jerusalem.

The ancient site contains around 100 buildings, including a fortress, in the middle of 24 acres of land covered in black slag. The mine works are covered with trials and holes, and are big enough to be seen on Google Earth’s satellite images. The team also found ancient Egyptian artifacts at the site including a scarab and amulet from the 10th century BC.

When Solomon died, his kingdom was thrown into chaos and the Pharaoh Sheshonq is believed to have attempted to crush economic activity. This new find is sure to open up new discussion - and no doubt controversy - about how much myth and truth makes up the Old Testament.

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Time for a break

This time next week we shall be strolling around the Piazza San Marco in beautiful Venice, we are finally taking time out for a family vacation of our own after working so had this year. Living in Europe we always find it a difficult decision to make as to where to go for a few days but this time we decided in Italy.

We are planning a more major scale long haul vacation for next year and one place we have not yet visited is Brazil; lately we have started to look at Brazil vacation packages for around June 2009 and are looking to go on to Australia after Brazil to take in my nephew’s wedding on June 27th.

We loved Argentina a few years back and South America really is a diverse continent when it comes travel - Rio here we come…next year!!!

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