Editing Ophir (section)

====Africa====
Biblical scholars, archaeologists and others have tried to determine the exact location of Ophir. [[Vasco da Gama]]'s companion [[Thomé Lopes|Tomé Lopes]] reasoned that Ophir would have been the ancient name for [[Great Zimbabwe]] in [[Zimbabwe]], the main center of [[southern Africa]]n trade in gold in the [[Renaissance]] period — though the ruins at Great Zimbabwe are now dated to the [[medieval era]], long after Solomon is said to have lived. The identification of Ophir with [[Sofala]] in Mozambique was mentioned by [[John Milton|Milton]] in ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' (11:399-401), among many other works of literature and science.

Another, more serious, possibility is the African shore of the [[Red Sea]], [[Gulf of Aden]] or [[Somali Sea]], with the name perhaps being derived from the ancient city of Opone in modern day [[Somalia]] or from [[Afar (ethnicity)|Afar]] people living in the [[Danakil desert]] ([[Ethiopia]], [[Eritrea]]) between [[Adulis]] and [[Djibouti]].

[[Afri]] was a Latin name used to refer to the [[Punics|Carthaginians]], who dwelt in [[North Africa]], in modern-day [[Tunisia]]. This name, that later gave the rich [[Roman province of Africa]] and the subsequent medieval [[Ifriqiya]], from which the name of the continent [[Africa]] is ultimately derived, seems to have referred to a native [[Ancient Libya|Libyan]] tribe originally, however, see [[Terence#Biography|Terence]] for discussion. The name is usually connected with [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] ''afar'', "dust", but a 1981 hypothesis<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://michel-desfayes.org/namesofcountries.html |title=Names of countries |work=Michel Desfayes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815062417/http://michel-desfayes.org/namesofcountries.html |archivedate=2017-08-15 |url-status=usurped |date=2017-08-15 }}, Decret and Fantar, 1981</ref> has asserted that it stems from the [[Berber language|Berber]] word ''ifri'' (plural ''ifran'') meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers.<ref name="book on ligne">The Berbers, by Geo. Babington Michell, p 161, 1903, Journal of the Royal African Society [https://www.jstor.org/pss/714549 book on ligne]</ref> This is proposed<ref name="book on ligne"/> to be the origin of ''Ophir'' as well.{{sfn|Lipiński|2004|p=200}}