In the heart of the southern part of Africa there is a lost civilisation whose people built some 20,000 stone forts, temples
and an irrigation system covering hundreds of square miles. It has been estimated that more stone went into building these features than went into the building of the Egyptian Pyramids. Who built these fabulous
structures? Many exotic and romantic theories have been put forward in the 100 years since they were rediscovered by western explorers. Are these really the famed mines of King Solomon from which he extracted the vast wealth that caught the eye of the Queen of Sheba? Robin Brown-Lowe set him self the task of finding the truth behind the builders of these ruins and set himself on the path of one of the most amazing stories to be found on the African continent.
This book is not just a story, its a story of a story. In exploring the origins of these features, Brown-Lowe also documented how the scientific worlds view of them has changed, both with increased technology at their disposal, but more poignantly with the changes in political attitude. It is acknowledged today that these buildings, now termed the Great Zimbabwe Culture, form the largest stone city in Africa south of the pyramids, Great Zimbabwe meaning nothing more tangible than stone building. The people who live here today, the Karanga are cattle farmers, living in mud huts in the shadow of these massive walls, are these the descendants of the people who built theses great structures? With the opening up of the area to western explorers the connection was made between this culture and Solomon, and the legend was born, after all the moral judgement of the time dictated that these great structures could not be the work of locals and so must have been built by outsiders, and who better than one of the major biblical figures. But is there really any evidence for this?
The threads of the book slowly come together to great a path through time and across great distances that joins the most unlikely of cultures together. The book opens in more modern times and charts the colonisation of southern Africa by western powers, before stepping back into ancient times to explore the possible connections with Egypt and the Levant. The key to the debate seems to be the identification of Ophir with the Zimbabwe culture. Ophir is detailed as one of the key gold producing areas of the Biblical kings, Solomon in particular, and the Zimbabwe ruins do seem to fit with the geographical description of this land. If this is Ophir, how does a trade route exist the length of Africa over 3000 years ago, a time when journeys of this magnitude were unheard of?
To run through the whole range of argument is too time consuming, would ruin the book to potential readers and is anyway not the purpose of this review. Needless to say Brown-Lowe makes a great case for a series of ancient trade links, involving a range of cultures the length of the continent. What is even more interesting to many than the
history behind this trade route is the evolution of the political and racial arguments involved. One poignant illustration that sums all of this up is a poster for the Great Zimbabwe site that shows a black tribes man kneeling and offering gold to a white Queen of Sheba, neatly displaying the view of the white scientists and politicians towards the indigenous inhabitants. The view of the power position has changed with the sweeping changes that Africa has undergone in recent times and now the marvels of the Great Zimbabwe can be seen for what it is, and as a product of the local people raises an avalanche of questions regarding the history of southern Africa. If they were t reliant on outside influence to build these impressive structures what else did they achieve? The study of ancient Africa is about to be revolutionised and I hope when it happens this book and Robin Brown-Lowes impressive research will be acknowledged as a major key in opening that door.