When I was a small child...[m]y imagination was fired by the age-old mystery of that Lost City of Ophir which furnished gold to the temple of Suleiman, and, as the years passed, I formed an ambition to discover it...In this fascinating book, the author reveals the unfolding story of his life-long quest to find Ophir. First joining the Royal Navy and then embarking toward China, the author begins a series of adventures that propel him toward his goal: "I had fifteen more years of search, and seven further years of arranging proofs, before I was able to assert that Ophir is no longer a lost city...I have learnt that Ophir and the Gold of Ophir represent far more than a lost city and a tale of romance. The lost lands of Ophir may awaken the whole of the Middle East; they may bring prosperity to a poverty-stricken peninsula that is larger than India."