King Solomon's Mines

King Solomon's Mines was a novel by the Victorian adventure writer and fabulist, H. Rider Haggard. It relates a journey into the heart of Africa by a group of adventurers in search of the legendary wealth said to be concealed in the mines of the novel's title.

The novel is written largely written from the first person perspective as a journalled account of the adventure. This goes rather against the general grain of mid-Victorian fiction which tended largely to have moved to the position of the third-person omniscient perspective favoured by influential writers such as Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and Anthony Trollope.

King Solomon was a biblical king renowned both for his wisdom, and his wealth. A number of sites have been identified as being the location of the mines of Solomon, including the workings at Timna near Eilat, Israel.

A film was made of the book in 1950 which won the Oscar for Best Film, and an article about it may be found here. There was a later film starring Kathleen Turner.