"THE TABLE OF THE SUN"

"The Kingdom of Sofala is rich in gold mines and ivory, and these are two precious commodities
that attract foreigners, and maintain commerce. The Arabians are supposed by some, and the
fleets of Solomon and Hiram King of Tyre by others, to have been the first traders to these
parts…"1

The above map, 'Description de l’univers,' dating from 1683, is an effective visualization of
Ptolemy's two promontories on the east coast of Africa, Rhaptum and Prasum. An extraordinary
feature of this map is that it overturns conventional theories of the extent of the penetration of
ancient traders into southeast Africa. This reinforces the sense that at the time of Ptolemy's
'Geographia' (mid-second century AD) mariners were regularly trading down the east coast of
Africa at least as far as contemporary southern Mozambique.

The existence of two continental bulges, defined by Ptolemy as promontories, on the east coast
of Africa would have been essential knowledge for sailing ships determining whether to tack
southeast or southwest. A logical reading of Ptolemy's text would place, as does this map, the
Prasum promontory in southern Mozambique.

"Aethiopia (Africa)... extends from the Great bay of the Outer sea to Rhaptum promontory as
we have said… from the Rhaptum promontory even to the Prasum promontory and the
unknown land… Near this is an island toward the east, the name of which is Menuthias…" 2

It is generally accepted that Menuthias is Madagascar and the map identifies it as such. The
other significant identifying features that can be established from Ptolemy's description are the
two promontories that jut out from the east coast of Africa. After rounding the horn of Africa,
heading south, there is at first a great bay encompassing the coasts of Somalia, Kenya and
Tanzania.

After this great bay there is a significant continental bulge or "promontory." This achieves its
furthest eastward extent between Cape Delgado and the Island of Mozambique. From this point
the coast retreats westward forming another great bay before forming another continental
bulge, or promontory, in southern Mozambique gaining its furthest eastward extent at the
modern town of Inhambane.

Therefore a logical analysis of Ptolomy's text, would identify these two continental bulges on
the east coast of Africa as the two named promontories, Rhaptum and Prasum. The first
promontory incorporating Cape Delgado can be identified as the "Rhaptum promontory" and
the second promontory incorporating Inhambane can be identified as the "Prasum
promontory."
Current archaeological speculation locates the town of Rhapta in Tanzania (near Zanzibar) but
the minor headland in this location can not be compared to the huge bulge now named Cape
Delgado. Rather the promontory can be seen to curve eastwards from the proposed Rhapta site
incorporating the cape before curving westwards again before bulging out again in southern
Mozambique.

The interpretation of the term 'promontory' in this context is supported by the French
'Ancienne Ethiopie' map which calls the Cape of Good Hope around the furthest extent of Africa
the 'Keras Promontoire.' A small and insignificant headland near Zanzibar is not then worthy of
being described as the Rhaptum promontory as it is by the prevailing orthodoxy. This orthodoxy
holds that the tiny, in the context of the entire African coast, headland near Zanzibar is the
Rhaptum promontory and Cape Delgado (or Mozambique Island) is the Prasum promontory.

Discarding the conventional orthodoxy allows Rhapta (in the vicinity of Zanzibar) to be
incorporated, entirely logically, at the beginning of the Cape Delgado/Rhaptum promontory
with the Prasum promontory located much further south at the end of the Mozambique
channel. This means that the extent of ancient penetration of the continent has to be moved
hundreds of miles south from Tanzania to southern Mozambique. The extent of the penetration
brings all the significant gold producing regions into the reach of ancient trading nations
including the Phoenicians.

Identification of Ptolemy's two promontories is supported by the location of Madagascar which

is close to both promontories. "Near this is an island toward the east, the name of which is
Menuthias (Madagascar)." There is an area of relatively shallow sea between Madagascar and
the Mozambique coast which is now named the Mozambique Channel. It corresponds to the
"shallow sea" in Ptolemy's account. "...toward the east by the Barbaricus bay, which near the
shallow sea is called Breve, from the Rhaptum promontory even to the Prasum promontory and
the unknown land."3
The significance of Ptolemy's description of the east African coast is that it proves that the
Phoenicians had penetrated down the coast as far as the "Prasum promontory" (southern
Mozambique). They therefore had access to all the regions of the Mozambique coast from
which gold was historically traded. The 'Geographia' incorporates the work of Marinus of Tyre,
the Phoenician mariner, whose writing has been lost but survives through Ptolemy.

In the map the interior (contemporary Zimbabwean) territory beyond the southeastern coast is
defined as Agysamba (Agisymba). The legendary location of Agisymba has been the source of
controversy ever since Ptolemy located the territory at the southernmost limit of his geography.
"... next to the unknown land of Aethiopia is a region of wide expanse called Agisymba."

The map shows the 'Mountains of the Moon' in Agisymba (or Agysamba). The Arabs called
Madagascar the 'Island of the Moon' and it is therefore credible that the mountain range that
faces Madagascar on the east coast of Africa, following the shape of the island, should be
referred to as the Mountains of the Moon.

These mountains are never snow-capped and are not the source of the Nile. However there is
more than one Island of the Moon (Madagascar and the Comoros) and this name may have
been applied to more than one mountain range. Other cartographers also place the Mountains
of the Moon in central southern Africa.

The eastern highlands of Zimbabwe divide the coastal plains of Mozambique from the gold
bearing hinterland beyond. The mountain range was a fundamental feature of the gold trade
both by being a barrier that had to be crossed and by feeding the rivers that produced alluvial
gold in the central plain of Mozambique (the contemporary Manica province).

From 2004 reports emerged of a gold rush in the Chimanimani mountains that straddle the
eastern Zimbabwe border with Mozambique. By 2006 it was estimated that at least ten
thousand miners from both countries had joined in the gold rush with miners, even with these
large numbers, gaining five grams of gold a day. In the context of the Zimbabwean economic
situation this represented an extraordinary reservoir of wealth.

A recurrence of a gold rush in this region is a sign of occurrences in the ancient past as gold has
been valued throughout human history. Arab travellers and geographers specifically identify this
region as rich in gold and forming part of greater Sofala. Gold sold in the other towns of the east
African coast was brought there from the Sofala region.

This continuity of history suggests that ancient traders, such as the Phoenicians, travelled to this
region to source gold. All would have known that beyond the coastal plain rose the
mountainous plateau which contained gold bearing rocks. Rivers running from the mountainous
plateau onto the coastal plain (the contemporary Manica province of Mozambique) contained
alluvial gold.

It is even possible that this mountainous plateau, containing the Chimanimani mountain range
which in itself has a distinct gold-bearing plateau, could be linked to the fabled Table of the Sun.
The myth of this table is inextricably linked with gold, since according to Herodotus, the Persian
king Cambyses wished to discover the source of the vast riches of Ethiopian (African) gold. The
location of this source is specified as being in "that part of Libya (Africa) that is on the southern
sea."

The location of the southern sea rules out the locations suggested by historians for this table. It
is inexplicable that historians imagine that this could be a reference to land-locked Sudan. There
is a consistent orthodoxy that maintains Herodotus could only have heard of a world that
terminated in central Africa. It is the gold trade that in the end destroys this orthodoxy as
humans will always be attracted to a significant source of gold. The myth of the Table of the Sun
can only be seen in this context.
"After this Cambyses planned three expeditions, against the Carchedonians (Carthaginians),
against the Ammonians, and against the 'long-lived' Ethiopians, who inhabit that part of Libya
(Africa) that is on the southern sea… to Ethiopia he would first send spies, to see what truth
there was in the story of a Table of the Sun in that country, and to spy out all else besides, under
the pretext of bringing gifts for the Ethiopian king."4

Herodotus further defines the location of the long-lived Ethiopians as being in the part of the
world stretching furthest towards the sunset (the west) in Ethiopia (Africa). They thus reside by
the southern sea "farthest towards the sunset in Ethiopia (Africa)."

"Where south inclines westwards, the part of the world stretching farthest towards the sunset is
Ethiopia; this produces gold in abundance and huge elephants, all sorts of wild trees, and ebony,
and the tallest and handsomest and longest-lived people."5

The riches of this fabled region were so enormous that the prisoners of the king were rumoured
to wear fetters of gold. "... the king led them to a prison where all the men were bound with
fetters of gold. Among these Ethiopians there is nothing so scarce and so precious as bronze.
Then, having seen the prison, they saw what is called the Table of the Sun."6

The prevailing orthodoxy rests on the assumption that the Cape of Good Hope was unknown
despite the fact that it is located at the furthest point south and west on the African east coast
towards the setting sun. However, according to Pliny, the Carhaginians had circumnavigated
Africa. The economy of Carthage was grounded in the gold trade with explorers such as Hanno
searching for new sources of gold. Pliny reports that Hanno circumnavigated Africa to reach the
extremities of Arabia.

"While the power of Carthage was at its height; Hanno published an account of a voyage which
he made from Gades (Cadiz, Spain) to the extremities of Arabia…"7
Herodotus stated that the Phoenicians had claimed to have circumnavigated Africa. He states
that Africa is bounded by water except where it borders Asia which was anciently considered to
be at the Serbonian Marsh near Pelusium in Egypt. This already indicates a recognition that the
continent of Africa could be circumnavigated, unlike Europe and Asia that form one land mass.

"For Libya (Africa) shows clearly that it is bounded by the sea, except where it borders on Asia.
Necos king of Egypt first discovered this and made it known. When he had finished digging the
canal which leads from the Nile to the Arabian Gulf, he sent Phoenicians in ships, instructing
them to sail on their return voyage past the Pillars of Heracles until they came into the northern
sea and so to Egypt. So the Phoenicians set out from the Red Sea and sailed the southern sea;
whenever autumn came they would put in and plant the land in whatever part of Libya (Africa)
they had reached, and there await the harvest; then, having gathered the crop, they sailed on,
so that after two years had passed, it was in the third that they rounded the pillars of Heracles
and came to Egypt. There they said (what some may believe, though I do not) that in sailing
around Libya (Africa) they had the sun on their right hand."8

This last section concerning the sun on the right is said to prove that the Phoenicians ventured
beyond the equator. It is the myth of the Table of the Sun that proves that Africa had been
circumnavigated in ancient times. The odds of a coincidence of a geographic feature resembling
a table being at the furthest point south and the furthest point west on the east coast of Africa
are beyond calculation.

This is not a tale of mythical monsters at the edge of the known world but a real account, of
which Herodotus was aware, of a distinctive geographic landmark so striking that humans of all
eras have referred to it as a table. The existence of Table Mountain rising above the Cape of
Good Hope is absolute proof that by the time of Herodotus the continent of Africa had been
circumnavigated.
It is at Table Mountain that "the south declines towards the setting sun" revealing the Table of
the Sun.

"Where the south declines towards the setting sun lies the country called Aethiopia, the last
inhabited land in that direction. There gold is obtained in great plenty, huge elephants abound,
with wild trees of all sorts, and ebony; and the men are taller, handsomer, and longer lived than
anywhere else."9

1. Lex Mercatoria Rediviva - 1754

2. Ptolemy - Geographia
3. Ibid.
4. Herodotus - Histories 3.17
5. Ibid. 3.114
6. Ibid. 3.23
7. Pliny - Natural History 2.67
8. Herodotus - Histories 4.42

9. Ibid. 3.114