The Lost City of Solomon & Sheba: an African Mystery - Brief Article - Book Review

Contemporary Review, Oct, 2003

Robin Brown-Lowe. Sutton Publishing. 20.00 [pounds sterling]. 256 pages. ISBN 0-7509-3033-0. This book is partly a travelogue and partly an investigation into ancient myths and legends centred on the 'lost civilisation' behind 'Great Zimbabwe' in Mashonaland (now in Zimbabwe). The ruins of this civilisation, first seen by the author as a young boy, are 'the greatest mystery southern Africa had to offer' and the 'largest stone city in Africa south of the Pyramids'.

Yet the civilisation which built this city seems to have disappeared without any other trace on present day inhabitants other than the name, Zimbabwe, which means 'stone building'. The author concludes that 'the temple-cities are the more recent, eclectic window-dressing of a much older society'. It may be, he argues, that the old legends about a 'lost tribe of Israel' are true. This 'lost tribe' or its descendents, who mixed with local inhabitants, may well be the creators of the civilisation which built not only the temple of the Queen of Sheba in Yemen but those of Great Zimbabwe.