King Solomon

White hunter Allan Quartermain and his enigmatic guide help a young Irish woman locate her missing father in unexplored Darkest Africa.

A life of King Solomon, written by his court historian! Such, apparently, were the contents of an old Hebrew manuscript, handed on to Professor Solomon by an elderly relative.
Its brittle pages were filled with the story of the king: his adulterous father (King David), his youth, his rivals for the throne, his accomplishments as ruler, his wise judgments, his many wives, his visits to the Cave of the Ages, his magic ring, his association with Asmodeus (king of the jinn), his building of the Temple, his speaking with birds, his encounter with Goliath, Jr., his meeting with the Queen of Sheba, his excursions on a flying carpet, his wandering as a beggar, his final days.

In the Old Testament, Solomon was painted as a wise king who amassed a fortune. For centuries, historians and treasure seekers have been on the hunt for the source of his legendary wealth. Now, recent discoveries in the Timna Valley in Israel have revealed an industrial complex from the time of the king that could have made him rich beyond man's wildest dreams. Could archaeologists have found proof that King Solomon's mines are real?

Sir Rider Haggard was a British Victorian writer known for his adventure novels set is exotic places. His writings are sympathetic to the natives. He often portrayed Africans as heroic in his stories even though the main characters are usually European. King Solomon's Mines is first book in the Allan Quartermain series. Alan Quartermain was the main character in the succeeding novel Marie. He also appears in several sequels. Quartermain was a progressive Victorian. He was a big game hunter in Africa who championed the cause of the natives. King Solomon's Mines tells of a quest into an unexplored region of Africa by Allan Quatermain and a group of adventurers. They are searching for the missing brother of one of the party. The book is significant because it was the first English fictional adventure novel set in Africa