Gold from Africa - history, origin, interesting facts

The oldest gold items were found in Africa, they date back to the XNUMXth millennium BC. Part of Ancient Egypt was called Nubia, that is, the land of gold (the word means gold). They were mined from sand and gravel in the upper reaches of the Nile.

Jewelery reached a high level around 3000 BC. not only in Egypt, but also in Mesopotamia. While Egypt had its own rich gold deposits, Mesopotamia had to import gold.

In the past, it was assumed that the legendary land of Ophir, famous for its large reserves of gold, from where the Phoenicians and the Jewish King Solomon (1866 BC) brought gold, was located in India. The discovery, however, in XNUMX of old mines in southern Zimbabwe suggests that Ophir was in Central Africa after all.

Mansa Musa is the richest man of all time?

Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali empire, cannot be ignored. The wealth of the Empire was based on the mining of gold and salt, and Mansa Musa is today considered the richest man of all time - his fortune today would exceed 400 billion. American dollars, but probably current. It is said that only King Salamon was richer, but this is difficult to prove.

After the collapse of the Mali Empire, from the XNUMXth to the XNUMXth century, the mining and trade of gold belonged to the Akan ethnic group. The Akan consisted of West African tribes including Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Many of these tribes, such as the Ashanti, also practiced jewelry, which was of a good technical and aesthetic standard. Africa's favorite technique was and still is investment casting, which only at first glance seems to be a simple technology.