Evening star., 1942-11-15
FIiers Discover
Ancient Desert City
By Frederic J. Hdskin.


is added to av.,tion, and one Of the
latest Is Its aid in the discovery Of q
lost city. Two aviators flying recently
over q point several hundred miles
southeast of Mecca, holiest Of holy cities
of the Arabs and located in Saudi Arabia
near the banks of the Red Sea, sighted
half-buried city with score or more
of marble towers reaching toward the
desert sky. Their discovery has been
varifled and it is believed that what the
flyers saw is the remains of the lost city
of the Queen of Sheba.
During recent decades there have been
many historic finds to substantiate much
Of what is recorded In the Old Testa-
ment, but they have been mainly by the
long and tedious process Of excavating.
Thus this feat Of establishing historic
certainly from the air is something new.
In the United States, which has an
area approximately three times larger
than the whole of the Arab-claimed
lands, it would be difficult to imagine
that lost city would not have been
found long ago, especially when there
are visible signs of it, In the desert lands
adjoining the Red Sea, however, there
are thousands of miles over which no
man is known to have trekked. Now the
airplane is going places where other
modes of travel have failed.
While nothing is actually known his
torically of the Queen of Sheba's lineage
and personal qualities, her fame is writ
ten into thousands of pieces of literature
as a beautiful legend. The story goes
back to the Book of Kings, is repeated in
| Second Chronicles, and touched upon In
! other literature of the time. Bible stu
dents authenticate the brief though
graphic account in the Scriptures of the
visit of Sheba's famous Queen to Solo
mon, but they speculate as to her iden-
tity and place of her abode.
Abyssinia has long claimed the Queen,
but the weight of evidence seems to be
that the region over which she ruled in
| such splendor was in Asia rather than
| Africa, and presumably somewhere
within the confines of that great stretch
of desert country known as Saudi Ara
| bia. At Alden, located at the extreme
end of the peninsula extending south
from the mainland of the country. a
traveller may hear it boldly asserted that
the Queen of Sheba passed that way on
her journey to Jerusalem. In the Far
and Near East, there is different con-
ception from that held in the facile
imagination of the Oriental.
No doubt the report of the aviators
will stir a new interest in this glamorous
parsonage whose name Is so we'll en-
bedded in the Scriptures and the minds
OF the people, and in time expeditions
likely will 60 forth to explore fully the
city which the airmen discovered. In
time, too, all the mystery about the
Queen of Sheba may be dispelled, and
largely because man has blazed new
trails by the use of the airplane.
The newly discovered city lies approxi-
mately 1000 miles southeast Of Jerusa-
lem For the queen on her visit to Solo,
mon to have journeyed directly would
have meant crossing of this vast expanse
of desert Consequently, it seems logi-
cal that with her gorgeous train she
should have taken the easier course Of
travel through the Red Sea- and 1t is not
unlikely that she utilized the canals
which the PharaohS, even at that early
time, had excavated to connect this tor
rid sea with the Mediterranean. This
would have made the journey COM
Portable, even an enjoyable one, except
perhaps during the summer.
! The Bible gives assurance that the
Queen Of Sheba was deeply impressed
by Solomon's wisdom in answering her
many queries as we'll as by the splendor
in that holy document that when the
Queens visit ended she presented Solo,
mon with many costly gifts.
There is no record in history of any
| country or region known as Sheba. The
word is thought to be corruption of
the word Sabaean, the name Of tribe
that lived in Yemen, a region in South
eastern Arabia, centuries before the
Christian era. The Sabaeans were q
commercial people who traded with
many neighboring countries. And 1t Is
said that they conducted successful ma
rauding expeditions for the collection
of plunder.
Both Latin and Greek historians take
account of these ancient people. Homer
refers to the Sabaeans in the Odyssey,
and Ezekiel speaks of them as men
| from the wilderness, which put bracelets
upon their hands, and beautiful crowns
upon their heads Isaiah alludes to
| the Sabaeans as a mercantile people,
| while Job describes their maraudings
against his herds and servants. The
| evidence is ample that they were active
| and aggressive, and sufficiently prosper
Gus to maintain ruler in the traditional
splendor of Solomons regal visitor.
From an archaeological standpoint
| there is little known Of the Sabaeans,
| as, apparently, they did not record their
! history upon clay tablets as did many
| other ancient peoples. In consequence.
| there seems little likelihood that their
history will be accurately determined.
| But what a stimulus to the explorer
who starts out to traverse the miles OF
burning sand which separate the new
| found city from the outside world! The
report that the airmen were fred upon
| by nomadic Bedouins camped within the
walls of the old city will add zest to the
| quest.
| It is historically certain that the Sa-
baeans lived in a highly fertile land,