Has the U.S. Geological Survey Found King Solomon's Gold Mines? - The BAS Library
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Has the U.S. Geological Survey Found King Solomon’s Gold Mines?

By Lois Berkowitz

Have the legendary gold mines of King Solomon been found? In the past year, the U.S. Geological Survey announced that they may have found King Solomon’s mines at Mahd adh Dhahab, an ancient mine in central Saudi Arabia between Mecca and Medina. The New York Times quoted Dr. Robert Luce, one of the geologists who was part of the American-Saudi team exploring the area, as saying, “Our investigations have now confirmed that the old mine could have been as rich as described in biblical accounts and, indeed, is a logical candidate to be the lost Ophir … ‘King Solomon’s […]

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Footnotes

1.

Karl S. Twitchell, Saudi Arabia, Princeton University Press, 1958, pp. 247–250.

2.

One talent equals 3000 shekels (see Exodus 38:25–26) and one common shekel equals .408 ounces. See R. B. Y. Scott, “Weights and Measures of the Bible,” The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 22, pp. 22–40 (1959).

3.

Charles E. V. Craufurd, Treasure of Ophir (London 1929), pp. 265, 281–288.