Ten Thousand Scorpions: The Search for the Queen of Sheba's Gold

by Larry Frolick

The desert tribes of Yemen call her Bilqis. In the high plateaus of Ethiopia, she is revered as Makeda. And in the fertile valleys of Anatolian Turkey, she is known as Saba Sultana. Who was the mysterious Queen of Sheba, and why has her legend survived for three thousand years – not least in accounts from both the Bible and the Koran?

In 1996, a geology team working for Chuck Fipke (the immensely colourful discoverer of the Etaki diamond mines in the Northwest Territories and the subject of the bestselling 1999 biography Fire into Ice ) was looking for gold deposits in the remote Yemeni desert. There they stumbled upon ancient mine tunnels. Were these primitive Iron Age ruins the source of Sheba’s gold?

Author Larry Frolick travelled with Fipke’s Cantex crew into the desert, seeking the truth of the legendary Queen. What he found there were not answers but more questions – questions that ultimately led him from Yemen to the Highlands of Ethiopia during Lent to Anatolian Turkey, where the ruins of the great city of Ephesus now lie inland, beside fields that were once an ancient harbour…and finally deep into the heart of Sheba’s mystery.

Along the way, the author meets a vast array of travellers, madmen, and visionaries – a Japanese social worker, who specializes in the treatment of students who stab their teachers; a Welshman fleeing perfect love; the last director of the Back-to-Africa Movement; perverse German trekkers; white Rastas; punk missionaries; and Turkish “beats” – pilgrims all. Their vivid stories create a surreal backdrop to Frolick’s search for “the epical Queen.”

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Mad · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'll concede that I am partly to blame in misunderstanding what kind of book this was before starting; I thought that this was an actual, serious, quest to find the Queen of Sheba's gold. It turns out that that's just some kind of pretext for this guy to travel around a bit. The picture on the back cover of the author holding a large gun really should have been my first clue.

There is admittedly some interesting information buried within the book, but I would bet my next paycheque that there are better books out there written on the subject. The gold is mentioned only at the beginning, before the author embarks on a strange journey that only partly makes sense. There is much speculation, many assumptions made, and there's really no conclusion drawn at the end of 300 meandering, lost pages.

The book is part travel diary, recounting the author's experiences completely unrelated to the gold/queen. He's also pretty gross, there is MUCH commentary on women and their looks.

It badly needed an editor to cut out some of the pointless nonsense, could have probably cut the book in half. Also, the book contained a number of typos and errors, which I can normally gloss over, but they proved to be the cherry on top of this hot mess of a book.

[Tom Griffiths · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt betrayed by this book. The writing style was fine and articulate. However, what I thought was an occasional ramble into side story turned out to be the whole book. It never amounted to anything of substance in events or philosophy or treasure or discovery. It attempted to remedy that with humor but that was not consistent enough to save it.

[Sooz · Rating 2 out of 5]

this kind of lay-person or informal history or travel book tries to find a balance between relevant informative data AND personal anecdotal story-telling. too much of the former leads to a dry book that does not engage the reader. too much of the later and there isn't enough purpose to the book.

for me, this book falls into the second category. lots of personal and entertaining stories about people Frolick ran into, but i just didn't learn enough to make the book worth reading.

[BasziK · Rating 5 out of 5]

travelogue