The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1891-11-06
KING S0L0M0N'S MINES.
Rider Haggard's Tale of Fiction
Founded Upon Facts.
ABANDONED FOR CENTURIES.
Wonderful Ruins i'm Africa of What
Must Have Been the Famous Mines
of Ophir-Traces of Civilization for
Centuries Back-Expected Revelations.


of Ophir-Traces of Civilization for
Centuries Back-Expected Revelations.
The Royal Geographical Society, aided
by grant from the British Association,
is sending Mr.. Theodore Bent. well known
as an arch@ologist and explorer In Asia
Minor and the Greek islands, to investi-
gate the remarkable ruins In South Gen.
tral Africa OF unknown date, supposed
by the older geographers to be the re-
mains OF the palaces Of the Queen OF
Sheba.
These ruins, generally known as those
of Zlmbabye are situated In Mashon aland,
about $50 miles west OF Sofala, and were
occupied, at the time Of the Portuguese
expedition into the interior In 1906. by
people denonlnated by them Moors, but
who appear To have been Arabs, reigning
over a subject race OF Kafflrs, probably
the ancestors OF the present dwellers In
that region; but the dominant race. the
Moors of the Portuguese. have apparent
ly disappeared, although some modern
explorers trace them In q yellow race
found further In the interior.
The Portuguese historians were loud In
their praise OF these ruins; but In one OF
their expeditions Zimbabye. having been
evacuated by its then inhabitants, was
taken by Baretto, the Portuguese COM
mander, sacked and burned. After this
nothing was heard OF it until Ii was re-
discovered and described by the German
traveller, Carl Mauch, In 1871. Mauch,
however, was not allowed 20 explore the
ruins, which are regarded as sacred by
the natives; but he made sketches OF one
or two portions OF them, which were after.
ward reproduced.
The account excited some interest at the
time; but the difficulties and dangers at
tending explorations in these remote dis
tricts prevented travellers from following
up the discovery, and the matter was al.
lowed to fall into oblivion until now, when
the expedition Of the Chartered Company
OF British South Africa has once moro
opened up and made practicable route
TO these interesting remains OF an ancient
civilization.
Zimbabye, as described, Is an extensive
mass OF ruins, covering the western slope
Of a granite hill, and extending across
plain for about 800 yards, where stands
another mass of ruins upon an elevated
terrace. AS far as can be traced, these
ruins consist Of labyrinthine walls. one
within another often terminating In cul
do sac and inclosing In one part a conical
tower still thirty feet high, on which no
entrance nuS Dteu ulSCONCLcu, hthoush
perhaps there may be one. partly buried
beneath the debris.
But remarkable as are the ruins OF Zim-
babye they do not stand alone. but appear
To be connected by chain OF forts with
similar mass of ruins near Tati, fully 300
miles farther to the west, so exactly SINH
lar In structure, design and ornamental
ton as TO leave no doubt whatever that
they were the work Of the same people.
while similar masses OF ruins are reported
near Manica and also In the Transvaal
east Of the MUSHROOM.
The whole OF these are built OF hewn
granite blocks, the size OF bricks. and
without mortar, and when we consider
.he immense amount OF labor this would
entail we may be certain that the builders
must have been very numerous. quite
settled In the country and far advanced
in civilization.
Whatever people may have been the
builders of these wonderful structures In
the heart Of savage Africa, 1t Is quite cer-
tain that they were attracted thither by
gold and that these masses OF masonry
we're constructed partly for the protection
OF the miners, and partly for the storing
and extracting the precious metal. In the
immediate neighborhood OF every one OF
these forts old workings abound, and near
Tati they are met with In thousands;
whilst in several of the rooms OF the forts
furnaces have been found for extracting
the metal; the only objects met with be-
sides being very coarse pottery, ana
stone basins with round stones, such as
are still used by the Kaffirs for crushing
corn, but which, from their much worn
appearance, may also have been used Tor
crushing ore after IL had been roasted In
the furnaces.
That the buildings have been entirely
abandoned for centuries is demonstrated
by the fact that they are generally over
grown with dense bush, whilst every
where trees OF great size and PROBABLY
two or three centuries old have forced
their way throug h the walls. MIR. Bent is
inclined TO attribu 10 these remains TO the
Persians in the reign Of Chosroes H., In
| the Seventh century OF the present era !:
but tho brilliant reign OF that monarch
seems far too short To allow OF the works
represented by those ruins; and after his
| death Persia was In too chaotic a condi-
| tion TO allow the maintenance OF so re-
mote n colony with it's necessarily large
| garrison.
| Failing Arabs and Perslans, we are
| thrown back upon tie odd Hhpnlcian hy-
pothesis for the origin OF these remark
| able buildings. IL is very evident that
! Hiram, King o' Tyre. had one well-known
depot from which he drew his supply OF
precious metals. his ivory and his amug
trees, and starting from Ezlon-Gebir. on
! the Red Sea, he would be quite as likely
TO sail along the coast OF Africa as far