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In Search Of King Solomon's Mines
''In Search of King Solomon's Mines'' is a travel book by Anglo-Afghan author, Tahir Shah, relating his travels in Ethiopia with only local people for company and assistance. The journeys Shah's search began with a map discovered in a Jerusalem stall which shows a trail leading to the fabled mines of King Solomon in the land of Ophir. The mines have enthralled and tormented all those who searched for them down the centuries and superstition whispers of terrible curses that will befall anyone that finds them. Bewitched by the legends, Tahir Shah decides to take up the quest. Chasing clues gathered from the Septuagint to ancient folklore, from the copper scroll to the national epic of the Kebra Negast, Shah was led to Ethiopia, whose past rulers traced their descent from the son born to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and from which gold has been exported for millennia. He arrived there at the start of the 21st century, in a period when the impoverished country is still r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tahir Shah
Tahir Shah ( fa, طاهر شاه, gu, તાહિર શાહ; ''né'' Sayyid Tahir al-Hashimi (Arabic: سيد طاهر الهاشمي); born 16 November 1966) is a British author, journalist and documentary maker of Afghan-Indian descent. Family Tahir Shah was born into the '' saadat'' of Paghman, an ancient and respected family hailing from Afghanistan. Bestowed with further lands and ancestral titles by the British Raj during the Great Game, a number of Shah's more recent ancestors were born in the principality of Sardhana, in northern India – which they ruled as Nawabs. His mother, Cynthia Kabraji, was of Zoroastrian Parsi descent and his father was the Indian Sufi teacher and writer Idries Shah. Both his grandfathers were respected literary figures in their own right: Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah on his father's side, and the Indian poet Fredoon Kabraji, on his mother's side. His elder sister is the documentary filmmaker Saira Shah, and his twin sister is the author S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shakiso
Shakiso is a town in Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Located in the Guji Zone of the Oromia Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 1758 meters above sea level. Two of the major mines of Ethiopia are located near Shakiso: the Lega Dembi gold and the Kenticha tantalum mines. The Lega Dembi Mine was acquired by MIDROC, MIDROC gold, which between 1998 and 2008 extracted 34 metric tons from the mines, earning 466 million dollars. However, MIDROC has announced in 2009 that the deposits at Lega Dembi are almost exhausted. Shakiso is served by an Shakiso Airport, airport (ICAO code HASK, IATA SKR). History The Swedish Red Cross report encountering a customs post at Shakiso when moving at the southern front in early 1936. There were two substantial waterholes there, although the water was somewhat salty. The customs staff had four small buildings on the top of a hill near the main road. Their primary task was to collect salt tax from caravans, which amounted to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Welel
Mount Welel (also known as Tullu Welel) is a mountain in southwestern Ethiopia. Located in the Mirab Welega Zone of the Oromia Region, it has an elevation of above sea level. Characterized by twin peaks, Welel is the highest point in the Zone and Hawa Welele woreda. Human history The name of the mountain is Oromo in origin, and the people of the Oromia region considered it sacred. According to author Mohammed Hassan, they named the peak after a mountain in Meda Welabu, which he considers to have been "the region of Borana dispersal in the early sixteenth century". The Dutch explorer Juan Maria Schuver reached Mount Welel August 1882, but he declined to attempt to climb it, explaining in his memoirs that "an escort of 100 men would have been needed to reach the top, as the mountain and a large extent of the forest around it, are inhabited by fugitive slaves and criminals from different tribes." In his book '' In Search of King Solomon's Mines'', Tahir Shah explains th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beta Israel
The Beta Israel ( he, בֵּיתֶא יִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Bēteʾ Yīsrāʾēl''; gez, ቤተ እስራኤል, , modern ''Bēte 'Isrā'ēl'', EAE: "Betä Ǝsraʾel", "House of Israel" or "Community of Israel"), also known as Ethiopian Jews ( he, יְהוּדֵי אֶתְיוֹפְּיָה: ''Yehudey Etyopyah;'' Ge'ez: የኢትዮጵያ አይሁድዊ, ''ye-Ityoppya Ayhudi''), are a Jewish community that developed and lived for centuries in the area of the Kingdom of Aksum and the Ethiopian Empire, which is currently divided between the modern-day Amhara and Tigray regions of Ethiopia. Most of the Beta Israel community immigrated to Israel in the late 20th century. The Beta Israel lived in northern and northwestern Ethiopia, in more than 500 small villages which were spread over a wide territory, alongside populations that were Muslim and predominantly Christian. Most of them were concentrated mainly on what are today North Gondar Zone, Shire Inda Selassie, Wolqay ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gondar
Gondar, also spelled Gonder ( Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on the Lesser Angereb River and southwest of the Simien Mountains. , Gondar has an estimated population of 443,156. Gondar previously served as the capital of both the Ethiopian Empire and the subsequent Begemder Province. The city holds the remains of several royal castles, including those in the Fasil Ghebbi UNESCO World Heritage Site for which Gondar has been called the "Camelot of Africa". History Origins Until the 16th century, the Solomonic Emperors of Ethiopia usually had no fixed capital town, but instead lived in tents in temporary royal camps as they moved around their realms while their family, bodyguard and retinue devoured surplus crops and cut down nearby trees for firewood. One exception to this rule was Debr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rastafari
Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of the movement and much diversity exists among practitioners, who are known as Rastafari, Rastafarians, or Rastas. Rastafari beliefs are based on a specific interpretation of the Bible. Central is a monotheistic belief in a single God, referred to as Jah, who is deemed to partially reside within each individual. Rastas accord key importance to Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia between 1930 and 1974; many regard him as the Second Coming of Jesus and Jah incarnate, while others see him as a human prophet who fully recognised Jah's presence in every individual. Rastafari is Afrocentric and focuses attention on the African diaspora, which it believes is oppressed within Western society, or "Babylon". Many Rastas call for this diasp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Axum
Axum, or Aksum (pronounced: ), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015). It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire, a naval and trading power that ruled the whole region from about 400 BCE into the 10th century. In 1980, UNESCO added Axum's archaeological sites to its list of World Heritage Sites due to their historic value. Axum is located in the Central Zone of the Tigray Region, near the base of the Adwa mountains. It has an elevation of and is surrounded by La'ilay Maychew, a separately administered woreda of the Tigray region. History Axum was the hub of the marine trading power known as the Aksumite Empire, which predated the earliest mentions in Roman-era writings. Around 356 CE, its ruler was converted to an Abyssinian variety of Christianity by Frumentius. Later, under the reign of the Emperor Kaleb, Axum was a quasi-ally of Byzantium against the Sasanian Empire which had adopted Zoroa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Debre Damo
Debre Damo (), also spelled Debre Dammo, Dabra Dāmmo or Däbrä Dammo), is the name of a flat-topped mountain, or amba, and a 6th-century monastery in Tigray Region of Ethiopia. The mountain is a steeply rising plateau of trapezoidal shape, about in dimension. It sits at an elevation of above sea level. It is north of Bizet, and north-west of Adigrat, in the Mehakelegnaw Zone of the Tigray Region, close to the border with Eritrea. The mountain hosted a monastery, accessible only by rope up a sheer cliff, high, is known for its collection of manuscripts and for having the earliest existing church building in Ethiopia that is still in its original style, and only men can visit it. Tradition claims that the monastery was founded in the 6th century by Abuna Aregawi. Part of the monastery was destroyed during the Tigray War, prior to 14 February 2021. Monastery The monastery received its first archeological examination by E. Litton, who led a German expedition to northern Eth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afar Region
The Afar Region (; aa, Qafar Rakaakayak; am, አፋር ክልል), formerly known as Region 2, is a regional state in northeastern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Afar people. Its capital is the planned city of Semera, which lies on the paved Awash–Assab highway. The Afar Triangle, the northern part of which is the Danakil Depression, is part of the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia, and is located in the north of the region. It has the lowest point in Ethiopia and one of the lowest in Africa. The southern part of the region consists of the valley of the Awash River, which empties into a string of lakes along the Ethiopian–Djibouti border. Other notable landmarks include the Awash National Park. Demographics Based on the 2017 projections by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), the Afar Regional State has a population of 1,812,002, consisting of 991,000 men and 821,002 women; urban inhabitants number 346,000 of the population, a further 1,466,000 were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mekelle
Mekelle ( ti, መቐለ, am, መቀሌ, mäqälle, mek’elē) or Mekele is a special zone and capital of the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Mekelle was formerly the capital of Enderta awraja in Tigray. It is located around north of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, with an elevation of above sea level. Administratively, Mekelle is considered a Special Zone, which is divided into seven sub-cities. It is the economic, cultural, and political hub of northern Ethiopia. Mekelle has grown rapidly since 1991 with a population of 61,000 in 1984, 97,000 inhabitants in 1994 (96.5% being Tigrinya-speakers), and 170,000 in 2006 (i.e. 4% of the population of Tigray). Mekelle is the second-largest city in Ethiopia after Addis Ababa, with a population of around 545,000. It is 2.6 times larger than Adigrat, the second-largest regional center. The majority of the population of Mekelle depends on government employment, commerce, and small-scale enterprises. In 2007, Mekelle had new engineering, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afar People
The Afar ( aa, Qafár), also known as the Danakil, Adali and Odali, are a Cushitic-speaking ethnic group inhabiting the Horn of Africa. They primarily live in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and in northern Djibouti, as well as the entire southern coast of Eritrea. The Afar speak the Afar language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family. Afars are the only inhabitants of the Horn of Africa whose traditional territories border both the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. History Early history The earliest surviving written mention of the Afar is from the 13th-century Andalusian writer Ibn Sa'id, who reported that they inhabited the area around the port of Suakin, as far south as Mandeb, near Zeila. They are mentioned intermittently in Ethiopian records, first as helping Emperor Amda Seyon in a campaign beyond the Awash River, then over a century later when they assisted Emperor Baeda Maryam when he campaigned against their neighbors the Dobe'a. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lalibela
Lalibela ( am, ላሊበላ) is a town in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Lasta district and North Wollo Zone, it is a tourist site for its famous rock-cut monolithic churches. The whole of Lalibela is a large and important site for the antiquity, medieval, and post-medieval civilization of Ethiopia. To Christians, Lalibela is one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, and a center of pilgrimage. Ethiopia was one of the earliest nations to adopt Christianity in the first half of the 4th century, and its historical roots date to the time of the Apostles. The churches themselves date from the 7th to 13th centuries, and are traditionally dated to the reign of the Zagwe (Agaw) king Gebre Mesqel Lalibela (r. ca. 1181–1221). The layout and names of the major buildings in Lalibela are widely accepted, especially by local clergy, to be a symbolic representation of Jerusalem. This has led some experts to date the current church construction to the years following the capture ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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