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The Mahd Al Thahab ( ar, مَـهـد الـذّهـب, "Cradle of (the) Gold"), is a small
The Mahd Al Thahab ( ar, مَـهـد الـذّهـب, "Cradle of (the) Gold"), is a small gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
area in the Arabian Peninsula. It is located in the Province of Al-Madinah, in the Hejazi region of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
.
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
was first mined in Arabia c. 3,000 BC. A second period of activity was during the Islamic Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
period between 750 and 1258 AD. The latest activities by Saudi Arabian Mining Syndicate began in 1936 using both open-pit and underground mines at Mahd Al Thahab. The Saudi Arabian Directorate General of Mineral Resources carried out further gold exploration in the 1970s, following the 1971 suspension of the US$-gold exchange rate and the consequent rise in value of the metal. Gold mining is done today by the Saudi Arabian Mining Company. The mine will close on 2023 as now only low grade gold is being mined because of the depleting resources.
Antiquity
There is a possibility that the ''Cradle of Gold'' is mentioned in the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden in ''TheBook of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...
''. - ''"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pishon
The Pishon ( ''Pîšōn'') is one of four rivers (along with Hiddekel (Tigris), Perath (Euphrates) and Gihon) mentioned in the Biblical Book of Genesis. In that passage, a source river flows out of Eden to water the Garden of Eden and from th ...
: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah
Havilah ( ''Ḥăwīlāh'') refers to both a land and people in several books of the Bible; the one mentioned in , while the other is mentioned in .
Biblical mentions
In one case, Havilah is associated with the Garden of Eden, that mentioned in ...
, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium
Bdellium (also bdellion or false myrrh) is a semi-transparent oleo-gum resin extracted from ''Commiphora wightii'' plants of India, and from '' Commiphora africana'' trees growing in sub-saharan Africa. According to Pliny the best quality came f ...
and the onyx
Onyx primarily refers to the parallel banded variety of chalcedony, a silicate mineral. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The ...
stone."'' Research by archaeologists Juris Zarins of Missouri State University and Farouk El-Baz
Farouk El-Baz ( arz, فاروق الباز, ''Pronunciation'': ) (born January 2, 1938) is an Egyptian American space scientist and geologist, who worked with NASA in the scientific exploration of the Moon and the planning of the Apollo program. ...
of Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...
indicates that the Pishon River may be the now dried up river bed that once flowed 600 miles north east from the Mahd Al Thahab area of the Hejaz c. 3000 BC.
The site has also been identified with " King Solomon's Gold Mine." Geologists have found a vast abandoned gold mine. Among their finds are huge quantities of waste rock, an estimated million tons, left by the ancient miners, still containing traces of gold. Thousands of stone hammers and grindstones used to extract the gold from the ore litter the mine slopes. Robert W. Luce said: "Our investigations have now confirmed that the old mine could have been as rich as described in biblical accounts."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahd Adh Dhahab Populated places in Medina Province (Saudi Arabia) Gold mining Governorates of Saudi Arabia