Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-02-24
IN CENTRAL AFRICA.
Ruins of Ancient Cities Discovered
There by Carl Mauch.


From the Ashton Reporter.
For many years rumors Of cities In ruins
In Central Africa have been rife. The coun-
try of Mcnomotapa in whose western por-
ton lies Mashona, has been considered the
Ophir Of the Bible and here was rumored
to be the castle of the Queen of Sheba,
whose fleets conveyed her treasures of gold
down the Zambesi to Arabia. A German
explorer, Carl Mauch, devoted himself to
the task of unraveing these rumors and
discovered certain ruins at Zambabye, lat
itude 30 degrees IL minutes south, and
longitude 81 degrees 4S minutes east of
Greenwich. Writing from Pixies Kraal,
September IL. 1871. he stated: 1T is &C
cepted as certain that white men have for
merly peopled this country. for there are
constant traces met with of dwellings and
of iron implements, which could not have
been the handiwork of the blacks. On a
hasty visit to the widely spread parts of
these ruins, 1-2 miles from Pixies Kraal
1 was not able to light upon any inscrp-
tons. 1 picked up no implements which
would enable one to determine the age of
the ruins.
THE ruins may be divided into two parts
the one upon a granite prominence of 400
feet high the other upon a more elevated
terrace. The two are separated by a gentle
valley 300 yards wide. The western side of
the rock is covered from top to bottom
with ruins. All the walls are built without
mortar, of hewn granite, more or less about
/ the size of our bricks The walls vary in
| thickness; at foot, about 10 feet thick; at
| bottom, to feet. One wall is in perfect
preservation to a height of 60 feet In
many places beams of stone to 10 feet
! in length project from the wall, in which
they must be inserted to a depth of several
feet. At most they are inches broad by 3
inches in thickness, and consist of COM
pact stone with a metallic ring and of
greenish black color. 1 found one stone
beam ellipsoid in section, feet in length.
upon which ornaments were engraved. The
ornaments consisted of lozenge shaped
| figures. one within another. separated by
horizontal bands of diagonal lines
Under a great mass of rock 1 found a
broken vessel shaped like a wooden Kaffir
basin of talcose gneiss, extremely soft Is
/ inches in diameter and 4 inches deep 1 10
In thickness at the edge and IL an inch
In the bottom. Best preserved of all Is the
outer wall of an erection of rounded form
situated in the plain and about $50 yards
in diameter. 1t is coo yards from the noun
tain and seems to have been connected
with 1t by earthworks. This oval has but
one entrance. three feet in width and five
/ feet high, facing the mountain Inside a
/ tower 80 feet high is in perfect preservation
ana the narrow passages are disposed as a
labyrinth The tower is cylindrical to a
! height OF 10 feet then upwards conical
! in FORM At the foot its diameter is * feet
at the top feet, and shows no trace OF
| having had an entrance. The outer walls
show an attempt at ornamenting the gran
lite; 1t represents double row of zigzag
| between horizontal bands This ornament
Is 20 feet from the ground. EVERYWHERE
| else Is rubbish, fragments and dense bush
| Some great trees three feet in diameter
| lift their leafy canopy to nearly twice the
| height OF these walls. and many trees of
vigorous growth have Enclosed the blocks
| within their own substance" From this
| we may infer the age of the ruins namely
| that the Portuguese. who had no fortified
| trading station here before the sixteenth
| century, must have found these buildings
| already in existence. DR.. Petermann OF
Gotha. to whom Carl Mauch sent his letter
and maps and plans. came to the conclusion
that the evidence pointed to this land as
being Ophir. 1t is essentially auriferous
| the Portuguese when they reached Sofala
in the sixteenth century found rich gold
! mines. which had evidently been worke
| for ages, and besides the mines were build.
ings and ruins. which. according to the
traditions of the natives, owed their origin
to the Queen of Sheba. Lopez states thai
| the old inhabitants of Sofala boosted they
| poss essed old books which confirmed the
I expeditions of Solomon to Ophir. The or
namentaton points to the fact that they are
| neither Arabian nor Portuguese in origin
but in all probability wrought by the Phoe.
nicians.