Ophir (; ) is a port or region mentioned in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, famous for its wealth. Its existence is attested to by an inscribed pottery shard found at

Tell Qasile Tell Qasile is an archaeological site near the Yarkon River in Tel Aviv, Israel. Over 3,000 years old, the site contains the remains of a port city founded by the Philistines in the 12th century BC. Prior to 1948, it was on the village lands of ...

(in modern-day

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

) in 1946, dating to the eighth century BC, which reads "''gold of Ophir to/for Beth-Horon ..30

shekel A shekel or sheqel (; , , plural , ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly 11 grams (0.35 ozt)—and became currency in ancient Tyre, Carthage and Hasmonean Judea. Name The wo ...

s''". The location of Ophir is unknown, though the find confirms it as a real place which exported gold.

Biblical references

Ophir in

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Religion * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...

10 (the

Table of Nations The Generations of Noah, also called the Table of Nations or ''Origines Gentium'', is a genealogy of the sons of Noah, according to the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, Genesis ), and their dispersion into many lands after Genesis flood narrative ...

) is said to be the name of one of the sons of

Joktan Joktan (also written as Yoktan; ; ) was the second of the two sons of Eber (Book of Genesis 10:25; 1 Chronicles 1:19) mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. He descends from Shem, son of Noah. In the Book of Genesis 10:25 it reads: "And unto Eber were bo ...

. The

Books of Kings The Book of Kings (, ''Sefer (Hebrew), Sēfer Malik, Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of ancient Is ...

and

Chronicles Chronicles may refer to: * Books of Chronicles in the Bible * Chronicle, chronological histories * ''The Chronicles of Narnia'', a novel series by C. S. Lewis * ''The Chronicles of Prydain'', a novel series by Lloyd Alexander. * ''Holinshed's Chro ...

tell of a joint expedition to Ophir by

King Solomon King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by f ...

and the Tyrian king

Hiram I Hiram I ( Phoenician: 𐤇𐤓𐤌 ''Ḥirōm'' "my brother is exalted"; Hebrew: חירם ''Ḥīrām''; also called ''Hirom'' or ''Huram'')Ezion-Geber, a port on the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

, that brought back large amounts of gold, precious stones and ' algum wood' and of a later failed expedition by king

Jehoshaphat Jehoshaphat (; alternatively spelled Jehosaphat, Josaphat, or Yehoshafat; ; ; ), according to the Hebrew Bible, was the son of Asa, and the fourth king of the Kingdom of Judah, in succession to his father. His children included Jehoram, who ...

of Judah. The famous 'gold of Ophir' is referenced in several other books of the Hebrew Bible. In the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

, other variants of the name are mentioned: ''Ōpheír'', ''Sōphír'', ''Sōpheír'' and ''Souphír''. The

New Testament apocrypha The New Testament apocrypha (singular apocryphon) are a number of writings by early Christians that give accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. Some of these writings were cit ...

book ''

Cave of Treasures The ''Cave of Treasures'' (, , Ge'ez: ''Baʿāta Mazāgebet'', Tigrinya: መዝገብ ገዛ), is an apocryphal and pseudoepigraphical work, that contains various narratives related to the Christian Bible. It was written in the Syriac language ...

'' contains a passage: "And the children of Ophir, that is, Send, appointed to be their king Lophoron, who built Ophir with stones of gold; now, all the stones that are in Ophir are of gold."

Theorized locations

Possible ancient trade routes

Sumatra and Malay Peninsula

The 1st-century historian

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

, in his "

Antiquities of the Jews ''Antiquities of the Jews'' (; , ''Ioudaikē archaiologia'') is a 20-volume historiographical work, written in Greek, by the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus in the 13th year of the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian, which was 94 CE. It cont ...

" (8.6.4), identified Ophir as "the Aurea Chersonesus, which belongs to India." "Aurea Chersonesus" () is Grecolatin for "Golden Peninsula." At that time,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

was thought to comprise, not just the Indian subcontinent, but also

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

, and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. Hence, in his

Geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

, the nearly contemporaneous geographer

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

lists these additional lands within the province of "India beyond the Ganges." Ptolemy therein identifies exactly where this Golden Peninsula is, centering it in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, perhaps also extending somewhat into

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

. In particular, Ptolemy mentions a "golden river" () somewhat south of the archaeological site of the

Bujang Valley The Bujang Valley () is a sprawling historical complex and has an area of approximately , with the discovery of a set of new iron smelting sites, Sungai Batu site enlarging the settlement area to . Bujang Valley situated near Merbok, Kedah, b ...

(), and in the vicinity of the "Palandos river" () (the modern Pahang region, also common in the derived

toponyms Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper nam ...

surrounding

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

). These areas are indeed famous for gold. Indeed, the longest-lasting name for Sumatra, , which also means "gold," may have derived directly from the word Ophir, by a means similar to the Classical Greek pronunciation displayed in the

: "Soophaara"/"Souphir" (/). Europeans, arriving later, consequently renamed mythologically-famous 'golden'

Mount Ledang Mount Ledang (; historically also: Mount Ophir) is a mountain located in Tangkak District, Johor, Malaysia. The summit is located next to the tripoint of Tangkak, Jasin and Tampin districts, located in the states of Johor, Malacca and Neger ...

near Malacca, Malaysia, as

Mount Ophir Mount Ledang (; historically also: Mount Ophir) is a mountain located in Tangkak District, Johor, Malaysia. The summit is located next to the tripoint of Tangkak, Jasin and Tampin districts, located in the states of Johor, Malacca and Neger ...

Sri Lanka

The 10th-century lexicographer

David ben Abraham al-Fasi David ben Abraham al-Fasi () was a medieval Jewish, Moroccan lexicographer and grammarian from Fez, living in the second half of the 10th century (died before 1026 CE), who eventually settled in the Land of Israel where he is believed to have co ...

identified Ophir with Serendip, the old Persian name for

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

(aka Ceylon). Moreover, as mentioned above, ''A Dictionary of the Bible'' by

Sir William Smith Sir William Smith (20 May 1813 – 7 October 1893) was an English lexicographer. He became known for his advances in the teaching of Greek and Latin in schools. Early life Smith was born in Enfield in 1813 to Nonconformist parents. He attende ...

Smith, William, ''A dictionary of the Bible'', Hurd and Houghton, 1863 (1870), pp.1441 notes the Hebrew word for parrot ''Thukki'', derived from the

Classical Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka **Myanmar Tamils, Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tami ...

for peacock ''Thogkai'' or Sinhalese "tokei".

India

''A Dictionary of the Bible'' by

, published in 1863, notes the Hebrew word for parrot ''Thukki'', derived from the Classical Tamil for peacock ''Thogkai'' and Sinhalese "tokei", joins other Classical Tamil words for ivory, cotton-cloth and apes preserved in the Hebrew Bible. This theory of Ophir's location in

Uvari Uvari is a coastal village in Thisayanvilai Taluk, Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, India. It is also called Karaichuthu Uvari. The total geographical area of the Uvari is around . Uvari is surrounded by Idaiyangudi, Navaladi, Kuttom and the Ba ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

is further supported by other historians. The most likely location on the coast of Kerala conjectured to be Ophir is

Poovar Poovar is a tourist town in Neyyattinkara (tehsil) in the Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala state, South India. This village is almost at the southern tip of Thiruvananthapuram while the next village, Pozhiyoor, marks the end of Kerala. ...

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

District (though some Indian scholars also suggest

Beypore Beypore or Beypur (, formerly Beypoor) is an ancient port town and a locality town in Kozhikode district in the state of Kerala, India. It is located opposite to Chaliyam, the estuary where the river Chaliyar empties into the Arabian Sea. Beyp ...

as a possible location). Earlier in the 19th century,

Max Müller Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born British comparative philologist and oriental studies, Orientalist. He was one of the founders of the Western academic disciplines of Indology and religious s ...

and other scholars identified Ophir with

Abhira Abhira may refer to: *Abhira people The Abhira people (Devanagari: आभीर) were a legendary people mentioned in ancient Indian epics and scriptures. A historical people of the same name are mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythr ...

, near the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

in modern-day state of

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

. According to Benjamin Walker Ophir is said to have been a town of the

Abhira tribe The Abhira people (Devanagari: आभीर) were a legendary people mentioned in Outline of ancient India, ancient Indian Indian epic poetry, epics and Religious text, scriptures. A historical people of the same name are mentioned in the Pe ...

. In

Jewish tradition "Unprintworthy" redirects are redirect pages on Wikipedia that aid online navigation, but would have little or no value as pointers to target articles in a hard-copy book. The name of a redirect may be unprintworthy for a number of reasons, incl ...

, Ophir is often associated with

, a place in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

, named for one of the sons of

Ibn Sa'd Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī or simply Ibn Sa'd () and nicknamed ''Scribe of Waqidi'' (''Katib al-Waqidi''), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in 784/785 CE (168 AH) and di ...

says in his ''Kitab at-Tabaqat al-Kabir'' that the Indians, the Sindhis and the Bindis are the descendants of Yufir (Ophir).

Ryukyu Islands

In Tomo III (1519–1522), pages 112–138, of the book ''Colección general de documentos relativos a las Islas Filipinas existentes en el Archivo de Indias de Sevilla'', found in the

General Archive of the Indies The ''Archivo General de Indias'' (; standard abbreviation AGI; ), often simply called the Archive of the Indies, was created by Carlos III of Spain, Carlos III and inaugurated in 1785. It is housed in the former Consulado de mercaderes, merchan ...

in Spain, Document No. 98 describes how to locate the land of Ophir. The navigational guide starts from the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

in Africa to India, Burma,

, the

Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonics, Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West ...

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

Sulu Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilaya' sin Lupa' Sūg''; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago. It was part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamoro Autonomous R ...

, China, then finally Ophir, which is the Ryukyu Islands. These directions were misrepresented by Lone District of Santa Rosa Representative

Danilo Fernandez Danilo Ramon Subiaga "Dan" Fernandez (born January 14, 1966) is a Filipino politician, actor, businessman, and optometrist who is currently serving as the representative of the Lone District of Santa Rosa, Laguna at the House of Representativ ...

in 2023, who suggested Ophir as the desirable name for the Philippines.

Africa

Biblical scholars, archaeologists and others have tried to determine the exact location of Ophir.

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

's companion Tomé Lopes reasoned that Ophir would have been the ancient name for

Great Zimbabwe Great Zimbabwe was a city in the south-eastern hills of the modern country of Zimbabwe, near Masvingo. It was settled from 1000 AD, and served as the capital of the Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe from the 13th century. It is the largest stone struc ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

, the main center of

southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

n trade in gold in the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

period — though the ruins at Great Zimbabwe are now dated to the

medieval era In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and t ...

, long after Solomon is said to have lived. The identification of Ophir with

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. The first recorded use of this port town w ...

in Mozambique was mentioned by Milton in ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...

'' (11:399-401), among many other works of literature and science. Another, more serious, possibility is the African shore of the

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden (; ) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channel, the Socotra Archipelago, Puntland in Somalia and Somaliland to the south. ...

Somali Sea Somalia's coastline consists of the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Guardafui Channel to the northeast and the Indian Ocean to the east. The total length of the coastline is approximately 3333 km, giving the country the longest coastline on mainlan ...

, with the name perhaps being derived from the ancient city of Opone in modern day

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

or from Afar people living in the

Danakil desert The Danakil Desert (or Afar Desert) is a desert in northeast Ethiopia, southern Eritrea, and northwestern Djibouti. Situated in the Afar Triangle, it stretches across of Desert climate, arid terrain. It is inhabited by a few Afar people, Afar, w ...

(

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

) between

Adulis Adulis (Sabaic, Sabaean: 𐩱 𐩵 𐩡 𐩪, , ) was an ancient city along the Red Sea in the Gulf of Zula, about south of Massawa. Its ruins lie within the modern Eritrean list of cities in Eritrea, city of Zula. It was the emporium (antiquit ...

and

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

Afri (singular ) was a Latin name for the inhabitants of Africa, referring in its widest sense to all the lands south of the Mediterranean (Ancient Libya). Latin speakers at first used as an adjective, meaning "of Africa". As a substantive, it deno ...

was a Latin name used to refer to the

Carthaginians The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people, Semitic people who Phoenician settlement of North Africa, migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Iron ...

, who dwelt in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

, in modern-day

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

. This name, that later gave the rich

Roman province of Africa Africa was a Roman province on the northern coast of the continent of Africa. It was established in 146 BC, following the Roman Republic's conquest of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisi ...

and the subsequent medieval

Ifriqiya Ifriqiya ( '), also known as al-Maghrib al-Adna (), was a medieval historical region comprising today's Tunisia, eastern Algeria, and Tripolitania (roughly western Libya). It included all of what had previously been the Byzantine province of ...

, from which the name of the continent

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

is ultimately derived, seems to have referred to a native

Libyan Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. All figures are from the United Nations Demographic Yearbooks ...

tribe originally, however, see

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a playwright during the Roman Republic. He was the author of six Roman comedy, comedies based on Greek comedy, Greek originals by Menander or Apollodorus of Carystus. A ...

for discussion. The name is usually connected with Phoenician ''afar'', "dust", but a 1981 hypothesis has asserted that it stems from the

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

word ''ifri'' (plural ''ifran'') meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers.The Berbers, by Geo. Babington Michell, p 161, 1903, Journal of the Royal African Societ
book on ligne
/ref> This is proposed to be the origin of ''Ophir'' as well.

Mahd adh Dhahab, Arabia

In 1976, the United States Department of Interior announced that a team formed by the United States Geological Survey together with experts from Saudi Arabia believes it has "a fairly airtight case” that

Mahd adh Dhahab The Mahd Al Dhahab (, "Cradle of (the) Gold"), is a small gold mining area in the Arabian Peninsula. It is located in the Medina Province in the Hejaz in Saudi Arabia. Gold was first mined in Arabia c. 30th century BC. A second period of activi ...

, or Cradle of Gold, in Saudi Arabia is the biblical Ophir. As evidence, the team states that "there are huge quantities of waste rock left behind by ancient miners, approximately a million tons, and that it has an average gold content of sixteenths of an ounce per ton, indicating that the mined ore must have been richer. From sampling old slopes and from production figures during the 1939 to 1954 period when the mine was reactivated to extract gold and silver, the geological survey scientists estimated that in biblical times much gold must have been found at or near the surface." Moreover, Mahd adh Dhahab is "within range of Israel's transport capability," and it "could easily have been known to Solomon or his advisers because it lies on a north‐south trade route that has run to Aqaba for some 4,000 years." Their conclusion is that "Mand adh Dhahab iccould have produced 34 tons of gold in ancient times and was the biblical Ophir."

Inspiration or named after

Americas

In a letter written in May 1500, Peter Martyr claimed that Christopher Columbus identified

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

with Ophir. The theologian

Benito Arias Montano Benito Arias Montano (or Benedictus Arias Montanus; 1527–1598) was a Spanish orientalist and polymath who was active mostly in Spain. He was also editor of the '' Antwerp Polyglot''. He reached the high rank of Royal Chaplain to King Philip II ...

(1571) proposed finding Ophir in the name of

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, reasoning that the native Peruvians were thus descendants of Ophir and

Shem Shem (; ''Šēm''; ) is one of the sons of Noah in the Bible ( Genesis 5–11 and 1 Chronicles 1:4). The children of Shem are Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram, in addition to unnamed daughters. Abraham, the patriarch of Jews, Christ ...

. The

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

boomtown,

Ophir Ophir (; ) is a port or region mentioned in the Bible, famous for its wealth. Its existence is attested to by an inscribed pottery shard found at Tell Qasile (in modern-day Tel Aviv) in 1946, dating to the eighth century BC, which reads "''go ...

, was renamed after "the biblical source of

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

's treasure." Ophir, Oregon, is an unincorporated community on the coast in Curry County.

Solomon Islands

After their discovery by Europeans in 1568 by Spanish navigator

Álvaro de Mendaña Álvaro or Álvar (, , ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese male given name and surname of Germanic Visigothic origin. The patronymic surname derived from this name is Álvarez. Given name Artists * Álvaro Carrillo, Afro-Mexican songwrit ...

, the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

were subsequently referred to as ''Islas Salomón'' (Solomon Islands) by others following reports of his voyage optimistically conflated with stories of King Solomon, believing them to be Ophir.HOGBIN, H. In, ''Experiments in Civilization: The Effects of European Culture on a Native Community of the Solomon Islands'', New York: Schocken Books, 1970

Mars

Ophir Chasma Ophir Chasma is a canyon in the Coprates quadrangle of Mars at 4° south latitude and 72.5° west longitude. It is about 317 km long and was named after Ophir, a land mentioned in the Bible. In the Bible it was the land which King Solo ...

, named after the biblical Ophir, is a canyon making up part of the

Valles Marineris Valles Marineris (; Latin for ''Mariner program, Mariner Valleys'', named after the Mariner 9 Mars orbiter of 1971–72 which discovered it) is a system of canyons that runs along the Mars, Martian surface east of the Tharsis region. At more than ...

canyon system on Mars.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * (fr) Quatremère (1861), ''Mémoire sur le pays d’Ophir'', in Mélanges d'histoire, Ducrocq, Paris, p. 234
read @ Archive
. For many references and a comprehensive outline of the products exported from Muziris, Ariake &c. cf. George Menachery ed. The St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India, 1973, 1982, 2009.

External links

Onshore explorations at Sopara and Kalyan, India
* {{Cite EB1911, wstitle=Ophir Hebrew Bible places Book of Genesis people Lost mines Books of Kings Books of Chronicles Historical regions Solomon Great Zimbabwe