King Solomon's Mines - Location

[Wabango]

Just a quick question and possibly a discussion:

Where were the mines of King Solomon?

I have seen two competing ideas, one being close to home in Israel, and the other in the ruined city of Great Zimbabwe, anyone able to weigh in on the location of the mines?

 

[fuzzatron717]

It probably being in Israel since they had no way of going to Zimbabwe for one and two I doubt they would that far to make a mine. And third this thread is off topic from the game. Unless you prove me wrong. Thank you for clearing that up Louis XXIV

 

[Louis XXIV]

King Solomon's Mine is a natural wonder in the game, so it's not off topic.

The one in the game is the legendary one in Africa, not any one that would be in Israel.

 

[Wabango]

King Solomon's Mine is a natural wonder in the game, so it's not off topic.

The one in the game is the legendary one in Africa, not any one that would be in Israel.

I thought it was the mythical one, thanks for the quick reply!

 

[labrynianrebel]

King Solomon's Mines is not a legend, it's from a novel about finding "King Solomon's Mines" in Africa

On my Earth map I put it in Edom since King Solomon's Temple was mostly furnished with copper and that's the only copper mining place they had access too.

 

[Glassmage]

This is not offtopic. I need this for my TSL earth map

 

[djvandyke]

They were in Southern Jordon

 

[otaman1]

And I thought King Solomon's Mine was actually King Solomon's Mine in Israel *sigh facepalm smh

 

[lacond]

I'm quite disapointed of seing king salomon mine as natural wonder.. earth gives thousand of cool natural wonder before this choice; it's only justified by an hammer bonus.. sick.

 

[lacond]

I'm quite disapointed of seing king salomon mine as natural wonder.. earth gives thousand of cool natural wonder before this choice; it's only justified by an hammer bonus.. sick.

 

[ottobot]

seeing as it was added for the purposes of the scramble for africa scenario, im going to go with saying its the zimbabwe one... also cause if thats true, then africa will get slightly less boring in tsl earth maps.

 

[Hans Castorp]

The Wiki link in the OP suggests, based on the geography established in the book, a location somewhere in the extreme south-east of DR Congo.

 

[BornInTheLoo]

Since my name is now irreversibly linked with tabloids anyway, I feel safe to quote the all-knowing source of wisdom that is the Daily Mail on this subject
The Daily Mail suggests this site in Jordan to be could be the location of the mythical mines

 

[SamBC]

It's all about H Rider Haggard. Word.

 

[PhilBowles]

Just a quick question and possibly a discussion:

Where were the mines of King Solomon?

I have seen two competing ideas, one being close to home in Israel, and the other in the ruined city of Great Zimbabwe, anyone able to weigh in on the location of the mines?

They weren't anywhere, they were a creation for a 19th Century novel - which did, indeed, site them in southern Africa, although not in Great Zimbabwe (based on the book's setting, they would have been in South Africa). As the writer was familiar with Great Zimbabwe and contemporary sources believed it to be the work of a classical Middle Eastern civilization, that was likely to have inspired the fictional ruined city in which much of the story takes place. That doesn't mean the Mines are in Great Zimbabwe any more than the Holy Grail is in Petra because that site was used as the inspiration for Indiana Jones' "lost city of Alexandretta".

There have been searches in the Middle East that have suggested copper mines in Israel or Jordan may be associated with King Solomon, but as far as I can tell these reports postdate the book and are more a case of trying to pin archaeological sites to a well-known name. These "King Solomon's Mines" are mines possibly associated with construction work in Jerusalem (the famous temple), and so would clearly be somewhere in the nearby area and certainly not in southern Africa.

In short, it depends what you mean by "King Solomon's Mines" - actual mines involved in sourcing temple construction material, or the modern (and unrelated) literary myth, in which for no apparent reason the "mines" were a storehouse of treasure. The mines are undoubtedly a Civ V Natural Wonder by virtue of the latter, relating as they do to the archaeology, Scramble for Africa and possible Great Writing themes of the expansion.

 

[Merciorum]

I'm quite disapointed of seing king salomon mine as natural wonder.. earth gives thousand of cool natural wonder before this choice; it's only justified by an hammer bonus.. sick.

Yeah, but, it's King Solomon's Mines, dude!