![]() ![]() Waldseemüller was the most influential geographer of the early 16th century, famous as the man who named “America.” His 1513 edition of Ptolemy, produced with two Alsace-Lorraine friends, included an additional twenty “modern” maps and is thus regarded as the first modern Ptolemy atlas. Īn imaginative, and decorative, revision of Waldseemüller’s 1513 map, which was the first separately printed map of southern Africa. Lorenz Fries’ reduced version of Waldseemüller’s map, from Ptolemy’s Geographia (Lyon, 1541). “Tabula noua partis Africæ.” Woodcut map, with added color, 29 x 40 cm. Monomotapa was rumored to be an area of untold wealth in gold-in fact, the high plateau area does have rich deposits-which probably accounts for the prominence of the name on early European maps of Africa. In further expeditions, the Portuguese gained control of the country during the first half of the 17th century, but were expelled by tribal warriors after a disastrous defeat in 1693. ![]() When the Portuguese first came upon these vast ruins in the early 1500s, they thought they had found the fabled capital of the Queen of Sheba. Today, it is associated with the World Heritage historical site known as the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, the largest ancient stone construction south of the Sahara, located in the southeastern part of modern Zimbabwe. Their domain was often called the empire of the Mwene Matapa, or simply Matapa (or Mutapa). Produced by Mutapa, or Monomotapa, was the title borne by a line of kings ruling an African territory between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, in what is now Zimbabwe and Mozambique, from the 14th to the 17th century. Jerusalem eventually fell to the Babylonian Empire and was destroyed in 586 B.C.E. But Judah's escape from imperial domination would be brief. Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E., whereas Judah, though severely damaged, narrowly escaped the dreadful onslaught of the Assyrian war machine. However, Israel was the more ephemeral kingdom of the two. Evidence from outside the Bible suggests that Israel was more powerful than Judah. ![]() Territorial boundaries expanded and contracted over time as Israel and Judah engaged in conflict with one another and their neighbors. The kingdom of Israel was larger in size and controlled more significant trade routes than did Judah. ![]() After the establishment of two short-lived capitals at Shechem and Tirzah, King Omri established his capital at Samaria, where it would remain for the duration of the northern kingdom’s existence. The northern kingdom consisted of the remaining tribes and was called Israel. The southern kingdom consisted only of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and thus became the kingdom of Judah, with Jerusalem as its capital. After the death of King Solomon, the kingdom was divided in two. According to the Bible, King David reigned over a large territory and his son Solomon over an even larger one. ![]()
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