Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen

Clapp, Nicholas

ISBN 10: 0395952832 / ISBN 13: 9780395952832

Published by Houghton Mifflin, NY, 2001

About this Item

FIRST PRINTING w/dj wrapped in mylar. Plum cloth spine w/gold foil letters wrapping dark persimmon boards. 372 number indexed pages. DJ design: Beth Middleworth. Front cover photo courtesy of Nicholas Clapp. Author photo by David Maltzer. Spine straight, binding tight, pages clean w/soft tone. Not x-library, unclipped ($26.00), unmarked. Price covers secure ship in box w/track #. 3000 years ago, a dusky queen swept into the court of King Solomon. From then to the present, her tale has been told & retold. Who was this queen? Did she really exist? In a quixotic odyssey that takes him to Ethiopia, Arabia, Israel & even a French village, Clapp seeks the underlying truth behind the multifaceted myth of the queen of Sheba. It's an eventful journey. In Israel, he learns of a living queen of Sheba--a pilgrim suffering from "Jerusalem Syndrome". In Syria he tracks down the queen's tomb, as described in the Arabian Nights. He investigates the Ethiopian shrine where Menelik, said to be Solomon & the queen's son, may have hidden the Ark of the Covenant. Then the "worst train in the world" (according to the conductor) takes him to the Red Sea, where he sets sail for Yemen in an ancient dhow & comes close to being shipwrecked. As in his search for the lost city of Ubar, he uses satellite images, this time to track an ancient caravan route that leads to the queen's winter capital in present-day Yemen. The quest is bolstered by carbon-14 datings & by the discovery of an Arabian Stonehenge in the sands of the Rub' al-Khali. Finally, at the romantic & haunting ruins of Sirwah, the pieces of the queen of Sheba puzzle fall into place.

Seller Inventory # 17412

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, NY
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0395952832
• ISBN 13: 9780395952832
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • History

About this title

Synopsis

The author travels to Ethiopia, Arabia, Israel, and France searching for the truth behind the myth of the queen of Sheba, and uses modern technology to put the pieces of the puzzle in place.

About the Author

Nicholas Clapp, a noted documentary filmmaker, has lectured on Ubar at Brown University, the University of California at Los Angeles, California Institute of Technology, the National Georgraphic Society, and the Goddard Space Center. Clapp currently lives in Los Angeles, California.