Gold-digging ant

The **gold-digging ant** is a mythical insect from the Baltistan region of northeastern Pakistan. It is mentioned in old stories like the Greek historian, Herodotus' book _Histories_. According to these tales, these ants were big like dogs or foxes and had fur. They would dig into the ground to find gold.

In Herodotus' writings, he talks about these furry "ants" that were as big as foxes. They lived in a sandy desert in the far eastern part of the Persian Empire (modern-day Pakistan), where the sand had tiny pieces of gold. When these giant ants dug their tunnels, they would sometimes bring up the gold dust, which the people there would then collect.

## Story

The first mention of these legendary insects was in the 5th century BC. In his book Histories, Herodotus talks about large, furry "ants" that are as big as foxes. He says they live in a sandy desert in one of the far eastern provinces of the Persian Empire (modern Pakistan). This place has sand with tiny pieces of gold in it. These big ants would dig tunnels, and sometimes they'd find gold dust, which the people of the area would collect.

In his book _The Ants' Gold: The Discovery of the Greek El Dorado in the Himalayas,_ Michel Peissel, a French expert, thinks that these "ants" Herodotus talked about might actually be Himalayan marmots found in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan province. Just like the area Herodotus mentioned, the ground there has gold dust. Peissel talked to the Minaro tribe who live there, and they said they've been collecting gold dust for years, which the marmots bring up when they dig burrows. This story was well known in ancient times, and later writers like Pliny the Elder wrote about it too.

Peissel says that Herodotus might have mixed up the Persian words for "marmot" and "mountain ant" because he didn't speak Persian and had to rely on translators. Herodotus himself didn't see these gold-digging "ants"; he was just repeating what he heard from other travelers.

## History

The story about the _Gold-digging ants_ has been around for more than 2,500 years, people have talked about big _ants_ in a far place that dug gold and made the Persian Empire rich. Some historians thought it was true, while others thought it was too crazy to believe. People in ancient Athens and Rome believed in this story, and even Alexander the Great knew about it. Many people have tried to understand this mystery over the years.

Now, a group of explorers claims they've figured it out. They believe they've found the place where these legendary gold-digging ants lived, in the Himalayas near the upper Indus River. These huge furry _ants,_ first mentioned by Herodotus over 2,000 years ago, are actually big marmots. They're like foxes but not as big as dogs. These marmots still bring up soil with gold in it as they dig their burrows. And the explorers found local people called Minaro who've been collecting this gold dust for generations.

Other explorers had thought these ancient _ants_ were marmots before, but they didn't know where people actually found the gold. Now, the explorers think they've found that place. This place is called the Dansar (Deosai) plain, high up in the Himalayas in northern Pakistan. It's a remote area where the Indus River flows through deep gorges. There are small villages of Minaro tribal people who've lived there for a long time, still keeping ancient traditions.

A French researcher named Michel Peissel first heard about this from the Minaro people 14 years ago. They told him that they used to collect gold dust from marmot burrows in Dansar (Deosai). It took a long time for Peissel and a photographer to get permission to visit the Minaro people on the Pakistani side of the border. In Pakistan, they heard the same stories from the villagers. They went to the Dansar plain and saw the marmots digging. They even found soil with gold in it.

Experts have wondered why Herodotus called these creatures _ants_ when they were actually marmots. Peissel thinks it's because the Persian word for marmot sounds like _mountain ant._ And Herodotus didn't speak Persian_._