OPHIR

:''This article is about the region mentioned in the Bible. For other uses see Ophir (disambiguation).''
'Ophir' () is a port or region mentioned in the Bible, famous for its wealth. King Solomon is supposed to have received a cargo of gold, silver, sandalwood, precious stones, ivory, apes and peacocks from Ophir, every three years.

Contents

References

Location

In fiction

See also

External links

References

Biblical references to the land of Ophir are found in
''1 Kings 9:28; 10:11; 22:49;
1 Chronicles 29:4;
2 Chronicles 8:18;
Job 22:24; 28:16;
Psalms 45:9;
Isaiah 13:12''.
Ofir is also known as a city in south Sinai.
:::—John Masefield, "Cargoes"
::''Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,''
::''Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,''
::''With a cargo of ivory,''
::''And apes and peacocks,''
::''Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.''

Location

Biblical scholars, archaeologists and others have tried to determine the exact location of Ophir. For instance, Vasco da Gama's companion Thomé Lopes reasoned that Ophir was the ancient name for Sofala in Mozambique, the main center of sub-African trade in gold. Although the identification of Ophir with Sofala was mentioned by Milton in ''Paradise Lost'' (11:399-401), among many other works of literature and science, it has since been discarded.
In the 19th century Max Müller and other scholars identified Ophir with Abhira {''see'' yadav}, at the mouth of the Indus River. Another possibility is the African shore of the Red Sea, with the name perhaps being derived from the Afar people of Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti. Most modern scholars still place Ophir either on the coast of India, in what is now Poovar, or somewhere in southwest Arabia in the region of modern Yemen. This is also the assumed location of Sheba.
Other assumptions vary as widely as the theorized locations of Atlantis. Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) adds a connection to "Sofir," the Coptic name for India. Josephus connected it with "Cophen, an Indian river, and in part of Asia adjoining to it," (''Antiquities of the Jews'' I:6), sometimes associated with a part of Afghanistan. Proponents of pre-Columbian connections between Eurasia and the Americas have suggested even more distant locations such as modern-day Peru. Author on topics in alternative history David Hatcher Childress goes so far as to suggest that Ophir was located in Australia; proposing that the cargoes of gold, silver and precious stones were obtained from mines in the continent's north-west, and that ivory, sandalwood and peacocks were obtained in South Asia on the voyage back to Canaan.^[1]

In fiction

Ophir is the subject of H. Rider Haggard's novel ''King Solomon's Mines'', which places the lost city in South Africa.
Ophir is also a kingdom in Robert Howard's ''Conan the Barbarian'' series of stories; see Hyborian Age for more information.
Several of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels happen in and around the lost city of Opar, deep in the African jungles — with Opar evidently being another name for Ophir. The city appears in ''The Return of Tarzan'' (1913), ''Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar'' (1916), ''Tarzan and the Golden Lion'' (1923), and ''Tarzan the Invincible'' (1930).
Philip José Farmer took up the theme from the Tarzan books and wrote two books of his own, taking place in Opar at the height of its glory thousands of years ago: ''Hadon of Ancient Opar'' and ''Flight to Opar''.

See also

★ Tarshish, another Biblical location providing Solomon with riches.

External links

★ Onshore explorations at sopara and kalyan,India