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King Solomon's Mines (novel)
''King Solomon's Mines'' (1885) is a popular novel by the English Victorian adventure writer and fabulist Sir H. Rider Haggard. It tells of a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the missing brother of one of the party. It is one of the first English adventure novels set in Africa and is considered to be the genesis of the lost world literary genre. Background The book was first published in September 1885 amid considerable fanfare, with billboards and posters around London announcing "The Most Amazing Book Ever Written". It became an immediate best seller. By the late 19th century, explorers were uncovering ancient civilisations and their remains around the world, such as Egypt's Valley of the Kings and the empire of Assyria. Inner Africa remained largely unexplored and ''King Solomon's Mines'', one of the first novels of African adventure published in English, captured the public's imagination. The "King Sol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Rider Haggard
Sir Henry Rider Haggard (; 22 June 1856 – 14 May 1925) was an English writer of adventure fiction romances set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a pioneer of the lost world literary genre. He was also involved in land reform throughout the British Empire. His stories, situated at the lighter end of Victorian literature, continue to be popular and influential. Life and career Family Henry Rider Haggard, generally known as H. Rider Haggard or Rider Haggard, was born at Bradenham, Norfolk, the eighth of ten children, to William Meybohm Rider Haggard, a barrister, and Ella Doveton, an author and poet. His father was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1817 to British parents. Haggard was the great-nephew of the ecclesiastical lawyer John Haggard and an uncle of the naval officer Sir Vernon Haggard and the diplomat Sir Godfrey Haggard. Education Haggard was initially sent to Garsington Rectory in Oxfordshire to study under Reverend H. J. Graham, but, unlike his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timna Valley
The Timna Valley (תִּמְנָע, ) is located in southern Israel in the southwestern Arava/Arabah, approximately north of the Gulf of Aqaba and the city of Eilat. The area is rich in copper ore and has been mined since the 5th millennium BCE. There is controversy whether the mines were active during the biblical united Kingdom of Israel and its second ruler, King Solomon. A large section of the valley, containing ancient remnants of copper mining and ancient worship, is encompassed in a recreation park. Ramon Airport is located near the entrance to the Timna Valley. History Copper mining Copper has been mined in the area since the 6th or 5th millennium BCE. Archaeological excavation indicates that the copper mines in Timna Valley were probably part of the Kingdom of Edom and worked by the Edomites, described as biblical foes of the Israelites, during the 10th century BCE, the period of biblical King Solomon. Mining continued by the Israelites and Nabataeans through to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Runciman
James Runciman (August, 1852 – 6 July 1891) was an English teacher, author and journalist. He was born at Cresswell, a village near Morpeth in Northumberland, son of Walter Runciman, a coastguardman, and Jean Finlay. He was educated at Ellington school, and then for two years (1863–5) in the naval school at Greenwich, Kent, becoming afterwards a pupil-teacher at North Shields ragged school. After an interval spent at the British and Foreign School Society's Training College for Teachers in the Borough Road (Borough Road College, which later moved to Isleworth), he entered the service of the London School Board, acting as master successively of schools at Hale Street, Deptford, at South Street, Greenwich and at Blackheath Hill. While still a schoolmaster, he read for himself at night, and attempted journalism. He soon wrote regularly for the ''Teacher'', the ''Schoolmaster'', and '' Vanity Fair''; of the last paper he became sub-editor in 1874. In January 1874, he matriculate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Thomson (explorer)
Joseph Thomson (14 February 1858 – 2 August 1895) was a British geologist and explorer who played an important part in the Scramble for Africa. Thomson's gazelle and Thomson's Falls, Nyahururu are named after him. Excelling as an explorer rather than an exact scientist, he avoided confrontations among his porters or with indigenous peoples, neither killing any native nor losing any of his men to violence. His motto is often quoted to be ''"He who goes gently, goes safely; he who goes safely, goes far."'' Early life Born in Penpont, Dumfriesshire, he was apprenticed into his father's stone-masonry and quarrying business. He developed a keen amateur interest in geology and botany, which eventually led to his formal education at the University of Edinburgh, studying under Archibald Geikie and Thomas Henry Huxley. Royal Geographical Society On graduating in 1878, he was appointed geologist and naturalist to Alexander Keith Johnston's Royal Geographical Society expedition to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area.Sayre, April Pulley (1999), ''Africa'', Twenty-First Century Books. . With billion people as of , it accounts for about of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Despite a wide range of natural resources, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, behind Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography, climate, tribalism, colonialism, the Cold War, neocolonialism, lack of democracy, and corruption. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and the large and young population make Afr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White Hunter
White hunter is a literary term used for professional big game hunters of European or North American backgrounds who plied their trade in Africa, especially during the first half of the 20th century. The activity continues in the dozen African countries which still permit big-game hunting. White hunters derived their income from organizing and leading safaris for paying clients, or from the sale of ivory. The term "great white hunter" emphasizes the racial and colonial aspects of the profession, as well as its colorful aspects. Depending on the author and intention, the term can be used straightforwardly, in parody, or as a criticism. Hunting in Africa White men from Western countries had been hunting big game in Africa throughout the 19th century, particularly in the more settled southern portion of the continent. But the region most associated with the term "white hunters" is East Africa. By the start of the 20th century, as part of the " scramble for Africa", European col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Courtney Selous
Frederick Courteney Selous, DSO (; 31 December 1851 – 4 January 1917) was a British explorer, officer, professional hunter, and conservationist, famous for his exploits in Southeast Africa. His real-life adventures inspired Sir Henry Rider Haggard to create the fictional Allan Quatermain character. Selous was a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Cecil Rhodes and Frederick Russell Burnham. He was pre-eminent within a group of big game hunters that included Abel Chapman and Arthur Henry Neumann. He was the older brother of the ornithologist and writer Edmund Selous. Early life and exploration Frederick Courteney Selous was born on 31 December 1851 at Regent's Park, London, as one of the five children of an aristocratic family, third generation of part-Huguenot heritage. His father, Frederick Lokes Slous (original spelling) (1802–1892), was Chairman of the London Stock Exchange and his mother, Ann Holgate Sherborn (1827–1913), was a published poet. One of his uncles was a p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Boer War
The First Boer War ( af, Eerste Vryheidsoorlog, literally "First Freedom War"), 1880–1881, also known as the First Anglo–Boer War, the Transvaal War or the Transvaal Rebellion, was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal (as the South African Republic was known while under British administration). The war resulted in a Boer victory and eventual independence of the South African Republic. Background In the 19th century a series of events occurred in the southern part of the African continent, with the British from time to time attempting to set up a single unified state there, while at other times wanting to control less territory. Three prime factors fuelled British expansion into Southern Africa: * the desire to control the trade routes to India that passed around the Cape of Good Hope * the discovery in 1868 of huge mineral deposits of diamonds around Kimberley on the joint borders of the South African R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglo-Zulu War
The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Following the passing of the British North America Act of 1867 forming a federation in Canada, Lord Carnarvon thought that a similar political effort, coupled with military campaigns, might succeed with the African Kingdoms, tribal areas and Boer republics in South Africa. In 1874, Sir Bartle Frere was sent to South Africa as High Commissioner for the British Empire to effect such plans. Among the obstacles were the armed independent states of the South African Republic and the Kingdom of Zululand.Knight (1992, 2002), p. 8. Frere, on his own initiative, sent a provocative ultimatum on 11 December 1878 to the Zulu king Cetshwayo and upon its rejection sent Lord Chelmsford to invade Zululand. The war is notable for several particularly bloody battles, including an opening victory of the Zulu at the Battle of Isandlwana, followed by the defence of Rorke's Drift by a small British force from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Zimbabwe
Great Zimbabwe is a medieval city in the south-eastern hills of Zimbabwe near Lake Mutirikwi and the town of Masvingo. It is thought to have been the capital of a great kingdom during the country's Late Iron Age about which little is known. Construction on the city began in the 9th century and continued until it was abandoned in the 15th century. The edifices are believed to have been erected by the ancestral Shona. The stone city spans an area of and could have housed up to 18,000 people at its peak, giving it a population density of approximately 2,500 per square kilometre. It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Great Zimbabwe is believed to have served as a royal palace for the local monarch. As such, it would have been used as the seat of political power. Among the edifice's most prominent features were its walls, some of which are eleven metres high. They were constructed without mortar (dry stone). Eventually, the city was abandoned and fell into ruin. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sofala
Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Mwenemutapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique. It was founded by Somali merchants. This name was given because the area is rich with resources.''The Horizon History of Africa'', vol. 1, p. 143 History One of the oldest harbours documented in Southern Africa, medieval Sofala was erected on the edge of a wide estuary formed by the Buzi River (called ''Rio de Sofala'' in older maps). The Buzi River connected Sofala to the internal market town of Manica, and from there to the gold fields of Great Zimbabwe. Sometime in the in 10th century,sofala emerged as a small trading post and was incorporated into the greater global Somali trade network. Merchants from the Sultanate of Mogadishu had long kept Sofala a secret from their Kilwan rivals, who up until then rarely sailed beyond Cape Delgado. In the 1180s, Sultan Suleiman Hassan of Kil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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