Thrilled by rumors of a lost civilization, three Englishmen decide to travel to the heart of Africa with their Zulu guide, where they meet with continual peril: an attack by a cruel warrior tribe, the scorch of underground volcanic fires, and an encounter with a huge species of ferocious black crab. Exhausted and depleted of supplies, the men at last arrive at a mysterious city in the highlands of the interior. The people, called the Zu-Vendi, enjoy a civilization suggesting Egyptian origin, which includes a sun-worshiping priesthood. The travelers immediately fall into disfavor with the priests by shooting some sacred hippopotami. More problems arise when Sir Henry falls in love with one of the twin queens who rule the land. Her devious sister becomes jealous, and civil war erupts.

Drawing on his own rich experiences in the colonial service in Africa, Henry Rider Haggard has thrilled generations of readers with some of literature’s greatest adventure novels, set in exotic locales all over the world. Written in 1887,Allan Quatermainis the sequel toKing Solomon’s Mines.

Cleopatra lies asleep. One white, rounded arm makes a pillar for her head. The web of her dark hair falls over her like lace. Her limbs are draped in a robe so thin that the gleam of her flesh shines through it. Her rich lips are parted in a smile.

Harmachis looks down on her, and the sight of Cleopatra’s beauty strikes the young Egyptian with all the power of a mortal blow. For a moment, Harmachis aches with grief–that he should have to kill a thing so lovely!

With all the adventure and suspense of an Indiana Jones movie, this 1885 novel recounts the journey of four men-three Englishmen and a regal native named Umbopa-who enter Africa’s dark interior in search of the original site of King Solomon’s Mines, reputed to be the location for a great stockpile of diamonds. Who and what these unlikely companions encounter along the way is the stuff of high adventure, one of the great jungle epics of all time.

Allan Quatermain and a group of fellow adventurers set out to find a missing member of their party. This is the beginning of their adventures in an unfamiliar and unexplored region of inner Africa. The first adventure novel to take place in Africa, King Solomon’s Mines achieved wide-spread popularity as soon as it was published in 1885.

King Solomon’s Mines is a variety of lost world literature in what was one of the first English adventure novels that took place in Africa. It is told in a relatively rare first-person format. One story has stated that the author, H. Rider Haggard, wrote the book on a bet and it took him only six weeks to do it. Published in 1885, an unreliable map led three main characters into the desert of South Africa. As might be expected, they search for legendary mines of King Solomon and also for a lost friend, brother of one of the searchers. Their explorations lead to finding a frozen corpse and a wide variety of dangers. To find out whether Solomon’s diamonds were discovered, all you have to do is listen now to the exciting tale as related by a fictional Allan Quatermain.

A bold elephant hunter journeys to an unknown land in search of fabled lost treasure. But terrible dangers threaten anyone who approaches the wonderful diamond mines of King Solomon.

On board a ship bound for Natal, adventurer Allan Quatermain meets Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good. His new friends have set out to find Sir Henry’s younger brother, who vanished while seeking King Solomon’s legendary diamond mines in the African interior. By strange chance, Quatermain has a map to the mines, drawn in blood, and agrees to join the others on their perilous journey. The travelers face many dangers on their quest—the baking desert heat, freezing mountains, the hostile lost tribe they discover, and the evil “wise woman” who holds the secret of the diamond mines.

King Solomon’s Mines is a brilliant work of adventure romance that has gripped readers for generations. This novel is an enduring favorite that is filled with qualities close to the human heart: the spirit of adventure and discovery, the desire for immortality, primal terror, and the search for the primitive. Few knew the Dark Continent as Haggard did; his experience of savage life and wild lands lends a visceral credibility that makes us believe the impossible. Yet beyond all this lies a feeling for the supernatural. Adventure alone was not enough for Haggard: “The thing must have a heart.”

The irascible Allan Quatermain first reveals one of his many adventures with the story that captured the imagination of the world. His quest for treasure leads him to a lost civilization, and then he finds he must start a revolution. The biggest question he has is how can he get the treasure and escape with his life?

“What was it that you heard about my brother’s journey at Bamangwato?” asked Sir Henry, as I paused to fill my pipe before replying to Captain Good.
“I heard this,” I answered, “and I have never mentioned it to a soul till to-day. I heard that he was starting for Solomon’s Mines.”
“Solomon’s Mines?” ejaculated both my hearers at once. “Where are they?” …
And so begins the adventure of Allan Quatermain, Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good as they penetrate into the unknown regions of South Africa in search of a missing brother, and the fabulous wealth, said to still reside in “King Solomon’s Mines”.
First published in September 1885 amid considerable fanfare, with billboards and posters around London announcing it as “The Most Amazing Book Ever Written”, this tale of action and adventure by Sir H. Rider Haggard was released in 1885 and became an immiediate best seller.

When three adventurers, Bastin, Bickley, and Arbuthnot, are marooned on a South Sea island, they discover an ancient crystal sepulchre. Inside are two Atlanteans who have been in a state of suspended animation for 250,000 years! One of the awakened sleepers, Lord Oro, is the last of the Sons of Wisdom, a superior race who’d relied on their advanced technology to subjugate the planet’s lesser peoples. The other Atlantean is Oro’s daughter, Yva, heiress the title of Queen of the Earth. Unimpressed with the state of the world in the early 20th century, Oro sets out to do what he’s apparently done once before: use a colossal gyroscope to drown the planet, and restart the course of human history.