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This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture.

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The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations but not necessarily

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the only ones to the mysteries we will examine.

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There is an age-old legend that somewhere in these forgotten wastelands lie the fabled

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Solomon's minds.

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The Bible states that Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches.

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Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 603 score and six talents

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of gold.

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In modern terms that means 13 and a half tons.

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The Bible also lists great quantities of other valuables.

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Where did they come from?

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Where did his caravans travel to find his fabled minds?

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For centuries the Israelites had been nomads.

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From the time they left Egypt they had no land to call their own.

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Being David according to the Bible brought them a dream, a city of their own, Jerusalem.

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Having at last won his kingdom David felt his own hands were too stained with blood to be

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the builder of God's house so he abdicated to his favored son, Solomon.

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Here in the spring of Silom, outside the walls of Jerusalem, Solomon was anointed king.

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The first temple was built by Solomon and it made Jerusalem the center of the Jewish

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religion for all time.

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It was Solomon who transformed Jerusalem into an ancient wonder.

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Today it's the center of three great religions.

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For Christians it's the scene of the crucifixion.

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For Muslims it's the place where Mohammed climbed to heaven.

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And for Jews the wailing wall has special significance because it is all that remains

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of the western wall, the site of Solomon's temple.

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Solomon had to secure and develop the territories David had won.

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It was the largest land empire in the Near East.

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By defeating the Philistines the Israelites created a kingdom which stretched from Bersheba

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in the south to Dan in the north.

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Caravan trails crossed the kingdom from north to south and east to west.

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Solomon found himself controlling the crossroads of trade for the civilized world and so was

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able to command a steady income in tolls for safe passage.

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Solomon built six mighty fortresses which secured the main trade routes of the Middle

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East.

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To the northeast stretching along what is now the Lebanese coast with the kingdoms of

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Phoenicia.

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The Phoenicians had great resources of timber and metal and skill in working them.

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What they lacked were agricultural products.

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To compensate the Phoenicians turned to trade.

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Solomon had an abundance of grain.

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The Phoenicians were a great maritime power.

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Their alliance with Solomon would make him the richest merchant prince in the world.

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In exchange for grain Phoenicians sailed the oceans and traveled to the limits of the known

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world and beyond seeking trade goods.

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As harbors assumed a new importance they would become bases for a Phoenician sea trade and

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provide homes for Phoenician skills and technology.

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He sent 10,000 men to cut the cedars of Lebanon, timber for his great building projects and

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for his new shipyards.

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Even today the remains of slipways still run down to the sea.

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Phoenicians built and manned the ships.

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Not just vessels to ply the coastal trade but ships which could go on a three year voyage

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to the land of Tharshish.

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The Israelites were by tradition a nation of nomadic farmers and without his Phoenician

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allies Solomon could have achieved none of his greatness.

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This ship stove like all Phoenician work was of distinctive design.

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Phoenician style became the art nouveau of Solomon's kingdom using techniques which became

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traditional and have changed little since.

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Metalworking too was virtually a Phoenician monopoly.

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They had the skills for making not only the necessities of life but for working rare metals

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as well.

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The metal arrived already refined in England.

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Along with the cargoes of precious metals the ships brought apes and peacocks and ivory.

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Their skill at working with gold keystone the craft of the Phoenicians and creates the mystery

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where did Solomon's gold come from.

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The answer to the question may be found in the extraordinary relationship that developed

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between the Israelites and the Phoenicians.

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Each had what the other needed.

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To find Solomon's minds it's important to understand the trade between the two nations.

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The Phoenicians opened up to Solomon the trade routes of the world.

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In return Solomon guaranteed them a regular supply of oil and wheat.

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This agricultural surplus gave him his purchasing power and was the real basis of his wealth.

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A sledge with stones bedded in its bottom is still used for threshing on remote Bedouin

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farms.

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The wheat is spread on the threshing floor and the continual circulation of the sledge

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gradually separates the grain.

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It is a timeless method common throughout the Near East and is probably not so different

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to methods in use at the time of Solomon.

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Tossing the wheat in the air separates the chaff which is blown away in the wind.

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It is then winnowed before being ground in a stone curn.

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The grain is poured into the center of the curn and emerges as flour for the baker.

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Agricultural produce was brought in to be stored in great warehouses and granaries.

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For one month in the year each of the twelve provinces had to feed the capital.

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These new cities were built under the supervision of Phoenician craftsmen.

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Bears were the skills which crafted the masonry, walls and staircases, cutting the stone into

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accurate geometric blocks.

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This doorway with its decorated capitals is typical of Solomon's style of architecture.

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Their greatest work however was the building of Solomon's new Jerusalem where the workmen

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were personally supervised by the Phoenician king.

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The stone was quarried locally and the city was transformed from a small fortress town

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into one of the wonders of the ancient world.

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Deep under the present city lie the remains of Solomon's buildings.

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Solomon's palace once stood here and the walled up arches of the Golden Gate are on the site

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of the entrance to the temple.

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The layout was similar to a much smaller temple found at Arad near the Dead Sea.

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At one end was the Holy of Holies and in the center of Jerusalem was the sacrificial altar.

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Quoted from the Bible, three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace

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offerings upon the altar which he built unto the Lord.

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Solomon's temple was furnished in gold and gold leaf decorated the richly carved cedar

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paneling.

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The fame of his magnificence spread far beyond the frontiers of Solomon's own kingdom and

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the great of the world came to see for themselves and wonder.

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Ezekiel refers to silver, iron, tin and lead coming from Tharshish.

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These metals with gold could come from Spain.

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The ivory, apes, peacocks and additional gold could have been shipped from North Africa.

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Such a voyage might well have taken three years.

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Solomon struck a deal with the Phoenician king Hyrum.

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In view of the success of their joint operations in the Mediterranean, they agreed that together

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they would open up new trade routes to the south in the Red Sea.

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The Bible tells us that a joint fleet was built at Etzion Gabaer.

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Was this the port from which the Phoenician gold ship sailed?

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A world-renowned metallurgist undertook archaeological excavations.

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Professor Rothenberg.

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This would not be a possible sight for a port.

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You wouldn't possibly be able to build a ship there.

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The winds are so strong, the south winds are devastating.

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It's the worst place in the world to look for a port.

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The only sight I can see is a small island called Jezirat Faroun, the coral island,

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Sarsevellat, which has a natural port, a beautiful anchorage.

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Then in the biggest storm it will be quite, in that small bay.

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It's the only natural port and I'm sure this is the sight.

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Here excavations unearthed warehouses and workshops.

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Were the remains of caulking pitch and tar which were found beside the small fortified

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harbor used on Solomon's new fleet?

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The whole island was enclosed in a fortified wall, part of which still exists at the base

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of later fortifications.

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This new port would open up a whole new hemisphere.

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It would challenge the land routes across Arabia.

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Eventually, the Phoenicians would reach India and circumnavigate Africa.

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Could Solomon's mines have been in one of these new and distant lands?

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The existence of Solomon's sea trade brought strength and wealth to his land.

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It also brought the most famous woman of the time to him with a sense of need and humility.

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The Queen of Sheba came from southern Arabia, the wealthiest region of the Semitic world.

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She brought gold supposedly from her mines, frankincense and myrrh from deserts in her

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kingdom and spices and other goods derived from her trades in India.

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Solomon with his Phoenicians obviously disturbed very much the overland route and as they

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were after the same raw materials and after the same trading partners, the obvious thing

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to do was to make a common enterprise.

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And so the lady came up to talk to the king and he was clever enough in this case to say,

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okay, let's do it together.

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She had arrived with a great train of camels.

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The camel had only recently been domesticated.

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It had opened up the possibilities of trade across the waterless desert.

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So it seems they concluded their trade treaty.

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In return, Israel would have provided her with agricultural produce and manufactured

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products of third countries like Phoenicia.

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The Queen was certainly impressed by what she had seen.

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Thy prosperity exceeded the fame which I heard.

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Silver was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.

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Everything at his court was made of gold.

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But where did it all come from?

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While the Queen was in Jerusalem, another cargo of gold and precious stones arrived

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from Solomon's port in the Red Sea.

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This jar was labeled gold of Ophir.

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Ophir certainly existed and it has fascinated biblical scholars for centuries.

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Where was it?

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Was it in the East, in Africa, even America?

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Modern Israelis called this new town Ophira because they believed that Solomon's mines

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are somewhere nearby in the mountains of southern Sinai.

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The landscape is littered with the debris of recent war.

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But there is no trace of Solomon's mine.

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Merchants traveling north from the Red Sea towards Jerusalem may have left a clue.

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En route, they sought shelter from the heat of the day in the shade of a canyon.

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As they wild away the hours, they sometimes carved their names on the rocks.

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And once someone carved a Phoenician ship.

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This is a much larger and more sea-worthy vessel than the small inshore craft which

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plied the Mediterranean coast.

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These could have been the ships that sailed the Arabian coast in search of gold.

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From the size and number of amphora jars they carried, we conclude that these ships were

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large and strong enough to sustain long voyages.

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The Red Sea is full of coral reefs and sudden winds.

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It is a graveyard of ships.

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And even today, the local fishermen cast their nets in the shallows rather than venture upon

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the waters.

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To avoid the monsoons, the ships would have to leave in July and return in December.

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So exactly where did these ships travel?

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Where was Ophir?

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What actually is hidden in the deserts of Arabia?

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We have now geological reports mentioning hundreds of mines, gold, silver and copper,

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along the western side of Arabia, where a lot of ancient remains have been found, traces

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of metal making.

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And I think we should consider this as one of the major centers of early metallurgy in

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the Near East or in the ancient world which so far had not been recognized.

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So with increased knowledge, our ideas change.

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In the desolate mountains of the Sinai lie the great mines of Timna.

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For decades they have been called Solomon's Mines.

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But are they?

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The possibility of locating the mines long excited archaeologists.

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Timna was untouched.

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All we had to do is to kind of dust it.

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Very shallow excavation and here you had complete factories standing with all the remains, working

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tools, the pottery and the furnaces.

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So it's a unique site in the world.

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The earliest mining operations we have are from the 4th millennium BC, the very beginning

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of copper making, the end of the Stone Age.

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Then again we have the large workings, thousands of mineshafts, actually a date to the time

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of the new Kingdom of Egypt, roughly the time of the Exodus.

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In this small temple, the Egyptian landlords and their Midianite workers worshiped the

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goddess Hathor.

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The artifacts found by Rothenburg were made by Midianites from Arabia, famed for their

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skill in metal making.

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They were made over a period of about 150 years.

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Then quite suddenly mining stopped.

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I think it was abandoned mainly because the energy problem became too complicated.

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They had chopped down all the trees.

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They must have carried charcoal from great distances.

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But we should of course take in consideration that in the middle of the 12th century the

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Egyptian Empire collapsed.

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The Egyptians retreated into Egypt, left the Asian provinces.

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We have not found any remains whatsoever that could be collected to Israel.

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There are no traces whatsoever of King Solomon or any other Israelite king in the area.

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The mines were mined out already long before and have never been worked since.

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And we know from the Bible that the Midianites or the Canites as they were called, the Midianite

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family groups, were the earliest metallurgists.

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But we have no traces whatsoever of any metallurgy in Israel, in the sources or in the towns

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excavated.

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In Arabia today's gold is black.

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The rich oil found there.

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Perhaps this area was also once the origin of Solomon's gold.

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Did Solomon ever have his own mines or did he simply trade with people that did?

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After his death his kingdom fragmented and his ships rotted on the shore.

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Solomon's trading partnership with the Phoenicians had made him the richest man in the world.

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The magnificence of his wealth was never to be seen again in Israel.

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The people who wrote about it, long after his death, made it a legend in its own right.

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Where it came from was forgotten.

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All that was left was a memory of untarnished glory.

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The sun had set on the greatest maritime adventure of the ancient world.

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They began as simple squabbles but held too long.

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These are the few that devastated hundreds.

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They thought it would be a clean operation aided by the element of surprise.

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They were dead wrong.

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Vendettas, all this week at 9 on the History Channel.