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Archaeological Evidence of Ophir’s Gold

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🌍 The Globe That Rocked the World! 

Before Columbus sailed… the truth was already mapped.


1492 Martin Behaim Globe (Facsimile by Johann Gebhard, 1853 – Nuremberg).
Map image sourced from Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, used under Fair Use for educational and critical commentary. Public Domain.


🪶 THE SMOKING QUILL | June 22, 2025

The Forgotten Isles of Gold

How Colonial Academia Erased Chryse and Argyre from the Map

By Timothy Jay Schwab | The God Culture


There was a time when the islands of Chryse and Argyre were known across the world—mapped by Greeks, pursued by Romans, corrected by Magellan, charted indisputably by Toscanelli and Behaim, and cited by Columbus. But modern academia, caught in the colonial drift, chose to forget.

They quote The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and Pomponius Mela, yet leave out the directional markers, the island status, the mineral riches, and every geographic anchor that leads to the Philippines. They turn islands into peninsulas. They transplant Mindanao into Burma. Luzon becomes the Malay Peninsula. Palawan vanishes. And somehow, despite 2,000 years of testimony, the "Golden Land" disappears into vagueness.

It was never unclear.

As we are accused of creating a "strawman" argument because we have chosen not to address the hundreds, if not thousands of illiterate academics by name, this article will address a group of them and others will follow over time. No, this is no strawman, it is a Colonial pardigm of the worse illiteracy we have seen and the examples number in the thousands. When they are caught and exposed, they backpeddle even in personal assaults, yet they cannot defend the lie any longer. 

📜 FULL SOURCE QUOTES THEY OMIT

(Our additions in paranthesis)

“Alongside Point Tamus [South China Peninsula per Mela] is the island of Chryse, beside the Ganges the island of Argyre [in the first century, Josephus confused many equating the Ganges as the Pison River from Eden. This caused several to move the Ganges because they knew the Pizon led to the Philippines]. The first has golden soil [alluvial gold deposits extremely abundant in the ancient Philippines which some still remain today] — so the old writers have handed down [Greek fathers; thus, Chryse, Greek for Gold] — the other has silver soil [Argyre; Greek for Silver]. Moreover, as seems to be the case really, either the name comes from the fact, or the legend comes from the designation [The origin is Ophir and Tarshish of the Bible].”
— Pomponius Mela, 43 A.D.
“Tamus is a spur that the Taurus raises [Mountain range terminating at the South China Sea on ancient maps including Mela's]; Colis is the second angle on the eastern part and begins the side that faces south [Malay Peninsula mapped Southeast of Chryse on Mela's map].”
— Pomponius Mela, 43 A.D.
“Just opposite this river [the Ganges] there is an island in the ocean [due to Josephus the Ganges is moved to Indochina in this persepective], the last part of the inhabited world toward the east [Yes, the Philippines was known and mapped as the extreme East, where Japan and Ryukyu are missing from these maps], under the rising sun itself [Subsolanus in Latin mapped by the Philippines for centuries]; it is called Chryse [Greek for Gold].”
— The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, c. 50 A.D.
“...Ganges comes into view, and near it the very last land toward the east, Chryse… there are gold-mines near these places, and there is a gold coin called caltis… it has the best tortoise-shell of all the places on the Erythraean Sea [Indian Ocean often included the Indies]… a land called This [Chiis, China], and a great inland city called Thinae [China]…”
— The Periplus, §63–64 Those not reading section 64, and really 56-64, are not trying to understand this writing]
“Besides this there are exported great quantities of fine pearls, ivory, silk cloth, spikenard from the Ganges [from Chryse, the Ganges is in Indochina in this perspective), malabathrum from the interior, transparent stones of all kinds, diamonds and sapphires, and tortoise-shell; that from Chryse Island…”
— The Periplus, §56
“Beyond the mouth of the Indus are the islands of Chryse and Argyre [this does not say how far beyond, but he does], abounding in metals, I believe; but as to what some persons have stated, that their soil consists of gold and silver, I am not so willing to give a ready credence to that... [alluvial gold deposits; Pliny was wrong as these alluvial gold deposits are proven to exist in the Philippines all along, and still remain today. His skepticism is understandable, having not gone there and seen for himself. His doubt does not remove those alluvial deposits which were and are there.]”
— Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 77 A.D.
““The first river that is known in their territory is the Psitharas [Seres: China; Yellow river. Anyone starting at a river elsewhere cannot read as this section is about Seres], next to that the Cambari [River Chang (Yangtze)], and the third the Laros [Lang-tsang: Mekong traveling through Laos to South Vietnam where it empties and that is the position here, as no one can see the interior of Laos from the South China Sea. This is a maritime voyage, not a spaceship]; after which we come to the Promontory of Chryse [a rocky point by definition which exists also on an island which Pliny said this is an island, not a peninsula. He was a geographer and knew the difference], the Gulf of Cynaba [South China Sea; ancient Ciamba is Champa or Northern Vietnam. This gulf named for Vietnam from the Mekong Delta is what we call the South China Sea today], the river Atianos [Ati and Aeta, Philippine Tribes; ano: ανω: Gk.: upwards or aloft, on high, up and upper (as in the mountains)], and the nation of the Attacori [Atta people, Philippines Tribe; kori: Greek: κόρη• (kórē): /kó.rɛː/ → /ˈko.ri/ → /ˈko.ri/: girl] on the gulf of that name, a people protected by their sunny hills [which is why they are ano: ανω] from all noxious blasts, and living in a climate of the same temperature as that of the Hyperborei... (Tropical, not Japan, also indicates south of China under the Topic of Cancer, and not Japan. If crossing to the Malay Peninsula, one forgets that Pliny said these were 2 islands not a peninsula.)”
— Pliny, Book VI [route from China to Chryse, Philippines]
“But whenever you cleave the deep stream of the Scythian Ocean [Artic Ocean] in your ship, and you turn further
towards the eastern sea [China Sea], your path leads you to the island of Chryseia [island, not a peninsula, in the China Sea], where the rising of the bright
sun itself is even visible [Subsolanus in Latin mapped by the Philippines for centuries]. Turning from there [West into the Indian Ocean, Already passed Chryse] before the southern
headland, you would immediately come to the island of mighty Colias [Malay Tip, Already passed Chryse, Mela defined], Taprobane [Sumatra, nor Sri Lanka]... [Already passed Chryse]”
— Dionysius Periegetes, 124 A.D.

🧭 THE GEOGRAPHIC SMOKING GUN

  • Chryse is explicitly an island in multiple ancient sources. A peninsula is not an island and one would think an academic would know this especially when speaking of geographers, cartographers, and sailors. We are not talking about cave men, these are the actual explorers who charted this course in detail and the curators of such data they ignore. That is not academic, nor scholarly.

  • It is opposite the Ganges, which in Greco-Roman geography was often placed in Indochina, not Bengal. Could these academics not review maps before writing such illiterate ramblings?

  • Tamus is a southern point of China, yet modern scholars pretend it's in Burma. That is buffoonery. 

  • Argyre, like Chryse, is an island rich in silver, beside the same region—not inland, not metaphor.

  • The Philippine archipelago is the only region that matches all the mineral, floral, and geographic references. Yet, it is difficult to even find a modern scholar who has ever tested it.

  • Pliny maps a sea route from China passing 3 rivers to the South and then, crossing a bay (South China Sea) to Chryse in the Philippiines, affirmed in each around the first century.

How could they know this detail and Ptolemy did not a century later? That is indeed the question. The absence of everything East of true India is profound even for his time as he enclosed the Indian Ocean plotting names he knew nothing about geographically except they were in the Far East. As intelligent as Ptolemy was, this is illiterate. Magellan, Columbus and Behaim corrected this also only to be ignored by thousands of scholars who do not even know that. Mela, The Periplus, Dyonisius of Alexandria, and Pliny the Elder all reconcile this. However, the amount of nonsense we continue to see surrounding these references characterizing them as only saying 5 words of these excepts when they have exact directions, with maps to support this, can only be characterized as propaganda. A group who simply does not want to know. This is residual Colonial bias and in this age, this needs to be rooted out of academia. 

They ignore it as if it does not exist. A perfect example, so as not to be accused of creating a strawman, is Ernst Ravenstein who pontificates about Chryse, Argyre, Thilis, and Zipangu, unable to read his own reconstruction. One cannot do such by accident. He was intentionally misleading in Pharisee poise. He dismantled the Philippine archipelago right there on his own map of Behaim:

  • Cutting out and pasting Luzon (Chryse) claiming that island Southeast of China in the South China Sea was actually the Malay Peninsula. He forgot to look at his own map to see he already included and labeled the Malay Peninsula where it actually is and it is not Luzon and not Chryse. That is illiterate, or intentional.

  • He placed Argyre as the large island Northeast of Java Major (Borneo) and then forgot that is actually Mindanao. He was either no cartographer, or a liar. His map places it in Mindanao and in witchcraft, he says that must be Borneo. What he did was bastardize the Philippines in a racist Colonial attack. Let's call it what it was. 

  • He claimed Zipangu which Behaim maps as 9-30N, as Japan's big island which not 1 degree of it falls within such. It is Luzon as well fully encompassed by the map's actual geography. He drew it and yet then, played dumb in comdeic fashion. 

  • Thilis, west of Luzon, is Palawan known as the Isle of Pearl yet he very stupidly goes back to 77 A.D. quoting an atiquated view of Ptolemy claiming that island in the South China Sea is acctually Bahrain. That is either incredibly inept or an intentional attempt at extremely poor propaganda. 

This is how the erased Chryse from the map. 

🏴 THE COLONIAL ERASURE

“Chryse… is most correctly rendered by ‘Indo-China.’”
— The New America and the Far East, G. Waldo Browne, 1901

This is the textbook tactic:

  • Ignore the island descriptions.

  • Dismiss directional clues.

  • Confuse mineral history.

  • Overlay modern maps onto ancient ones.

  • And finally, declare Chryse and Argyre “vague,” “lost,” or “symbolic.”

This is not ignorance. It is narrative control.

💀 The Colonial Trail of Tears: Chryse & Argyre

We begin a new series within The Smoking Quill—documenting how scholars erased biblical and classical locations through cartographic colonization. Chryse and Argyre are first.

They were not mythical. They were mapped. They were mined. They were known.

And now, we remember them.

📚 For Full Restoration:

See Garden of Eden Revealed: Chryse, The Island of Gold,
and our upcoming release later this year.

This is the recovery of the true isles of Ophir.
This is the return of The Land of Gold.

🔴 Large Red Text (Right of Cipangu)

German:
“dise jnsel zipangu ligt in orient der welt dass volk asn landt peth abgotter an. Jr konik ist niemand underthan in der Insel wechst ubertrefflich vil goldts auch edelgestein perlein oriental, diss schreibt marco polo von venedig im 3 buch.”

English Translation: (Ravenstein, click link)
“This island Zipangu lies in the east of the world. The inhabitants worship idols. The King is subject to no one. In the island is found exceeding much gold and likewise precious stones and pearls. This is stated by Marco Polo of Venice in his 3rd book.”

Japan is not historically known for gold in its ancient records—especially not prior to A.D. 749, according to leading Japanese scholars themselves. That’s nearly 1,700 years too late to fit the description of Zipangu.

In contrast, Columbus equated Zipangu with Ophir [Watch Video], and Pereira identified it as Chryse [Read Blog]. These are not isolated interpretations—multiple Japanese academics have raised similar concerns, including in publications such as Japan Today, which we examine inGarden of Eden Revealed: The Book of Maps. 
Zoom View
1492 Behaim Globe Resconstruction 1853 Johann Gebhard

⚫ Central Black Label

German: 
“Cipangu do wachst vil gold.”

English Translation: (Ravenstein, click link)
“Cipangu where grows much gold.”
Zoom View
1492 Behaim Globe

⚫ Middle-Left Label

German:
“Cipangu di edelfi und reichjl insel in oriente von fpecerei und edeljlein voll hot umfang bei 1,200 meilen.”

English Translation: (Ravenstein, click link)
“Cipangu is the most noble and richest island in the east, full of spices and precious stones. Its compass is 1,200 miles.”

The distance from Davao City to Laoag, Ilocos Norte is approximately 1,220 miles (Google: “Davao to Ilocos Norte in miles”). This measurement aligns not with Luzon alone, but with the full span of the Philippine archipelago.

Geographically, the Philippines extends from Tawi-Tawi at about 5°N to Batanes at approximately 22°N—squarely within the coordinate range associated with Zipangu on early maps like Toscanelli’s, which place it between roughly 7°N and 30°N. Not a single major Japanese island falls within this latitude range, while the entirety of the Philippines does.

If Zipangu were meant to describe Japan, it would necessarily include at least one significant island within those coordinates—but there are none. This reinforces the conclusion that such a description more accurately fits the Philippine archipelago.
Zoom View
1492 Behaim Globe

🔺 Top Annotation on the Island (with trees)

German:
“Cipangu insula hat ein befondern konik und Jprach betetd apgotter an.”

English Translation: (Ravenstein, click link)
“The island Cipengu has a King and language of its own; the inhabitants worship idols.”

Top Labels: (Ravenstein, click link)

Both Japan and the Philippines historically had kings and idol worship, so that alone is not distinctive. However, the spices named here are critical geographic markers.

Japan is known to have an endemic nutmeg species (Myristica japonica), but so does the Philippines—notably Myristica philippensis (duguan). Its oil shares a key component with M. fragrans: sabinene (21.38%), commonly associated with culinary nutmeg.

However, when it comes to white pepper, Japan fails the test. While Japan has pepper varieties, it does not grow the tropical white pepper referenced by Marco Polo as found in Zipangu. That variety thrives in equatorial climates like the Philippines. In fact, Pigafetta himself described white pepper upon arriving in the Philippines, confirming its presence and trade value there.

Thus, once again, Japan does not match the botanical profile of ancient Zipangu—while the Philippines does.
Zoom View
1492 Behaim Globe

🔽 Bottom Annotation

German:

"in diser insul do wechsl gold und gewurz stauden."

English Translation: (Ravenstein, click link)
“In this island are found gold and shrubs yielding spices.”
Zoom View
1492 Behaim Globe

📚 Marco Polo Reference (West of Cipangu)

Just below the Tropic of Cancer—within the coordinates of the Philippine archipelago—appears a critical inscription often misattributed or misunderstood by Ravenstein:

German:
"Marco polo schreibt uns im 3 buck am 38 capitel dass warlich die schiffleuth befunde feyen worden dass in disem jndianischen merr ligen mer dan 12,700 jnsula di bewont find und welichen findt vil mit edelgefiein perlein und mit golt pergen andere vol 12 lei specerey und wunderlichen volckh dauon lang zu schreiben Me findt man vil meerwundter von Serenen und ander fisschen. Vnd objemandt von diesen wunderlichen volckh und selzamen vischen im moer oder thieren auf dem erdreicli begert zu wijsen der less die biicher plini jfidori arifiotoless strabonis und fpecula vincenzi vil anderer lehrer mer."

English Translation: (Ravenstein, click link)
"Marco Polo in the 38th chapter of the 3rd book states that the mariners had verily found in this Indian Ocean more than 12,700 inhabited islands, many of which yield precious stones, pearls and mountains of gold, whilst others abound in twelve kinds of spices and curious peoples, concerning whom much might be written."

Here are found sea-monsters, such as Sirens and other fish. And if anyone desire to know more of these curious people, and peculiar fish in the sea or animals upon the land, let him read the books of Pliny, Isidor (of Seville), Aristotle, Strabo, the ‘ Specula ’ of Vincent (of Beauvais) and many others."

📌 Note:
Marco Polo’s original manuscripts reference 7,448 islands in the archipelago of Zipangu—far too many for Japan, which does not come close to this count. The expanded figure of 12,700 islands cited here (via Behaim) encompasses a broader Southeast Asian region, still excluding Japan but matching the Philippines and neighboring isles.

  • The reference to “mountains of gold”, pearls, and precious stones echoes the onyx, gold, and bdellium of Genesis 2—found in Havilah, a land identified with the Philippines in numerous ancient sources.

  • The spice varieties (12 types) reinforce this location’s role in the legendary Isles of Gold and Spices.

  • The sirens and sea wonders align with Philippine folklore (e.g., sirena, kataw, berberoka), whereas Japan lacks such widespread indigenous sea-creature mythology.

Ancient scholars named—Pliny, Isidore of Seville, Aristotle, Strabo, and Vincent of Beauvais—all place their discussions of these marvels in the far East, and some—like Pliny and Isidore—directly place Chryse in the Philippine region.

Once again, the textual, geographical, and mythological evidence all converge—not on Japan—but on the Philippines as the true Zipangu, Chryse, and Ophir.
Zoom View
1492 Behaim Globe

🧭 Mythical Wonders & Authorities

German: 

"die in diefen Jnfeln wonen habe fchwenz gleich die thier wie ptholomeu8 fchreibt in der ailfften tafel von afa (I 42 s)."

"do findt man von den wunderlichen leutten in den Jn/eln und auf dem moer von meer wundern und wa /elzamer thier auf erdreich und in den Jn/eln vo wiirzen und edelgefiein wachfen (M 7)."

English Translation: (Ravenstein, click link)
“Those who live in these islands have tails like animals, as described by Ptolemy on tab. XI. of Asia (lib. VIL, c. 2).”

"There he shall find accounts of the curious inhabitants, of the islands, the monsters of the ocean, the peculiar animals on the land and of the islands yielding spices and precious stones."

📌 Note:
Spanish missionary Fr. Francisco Colin and other early chroniclers documented Mindoro tribes with protrusions at the base of the spine—reportedly growing tails a few finger-lengths long. Whether literal, misunderstood, or symbolic, this description fits the legend cited and helps geographically anchor these “curious people” to the Philippines.

These accounts are said to occur in the “Sinus Magnus”—the China Sea—not the Indian Ocean. This confirms that Ptolemy’s Golden Isles were in Southeast Asia. Even Magellan himself corrected this, identifying the islands east of the Malay Peninsula—not in India or Africa.

Yet Ravenstein conspicuously avoids this correction. We will not.

Japan, on the other hand, has no corresponding historical legends, no ancient tales of tailed tribes, and no textual alignment with these descriptions.

The evidence remains clear: from myth to mineral, the Philippines—not Japan—matches the legendary islands described by Polo, Ptolemy, and the great encyclopedists.
Zoom View
1492 Behaim Globe

🧲 Magnetic Maniolie (Ptolemy’s Maniolas)

German:
"difer jnfell fndt zehen gehaif maniole dafelbf mag Tcainfchiff fare das eifen an hat umb defa magne willen der dafelbf wechf (K 5 s)."

English Translation: (Ravenstein, click link)
"There are ten of these islands called Maniole. No ship having iron in it dare navigate near them because of the magnet which is found there."

📌 Note:
“Maniolie” (also Maniola or Maniolae) is identified by multiple scholars—including Archbishop Navarrete, Fr. Colin, and others—as an ancient name for the Philippines, and the etymological root of Manila.

The legend of a magnetic mountain or lodestone island—so powerful it would pull iron from passing ships—is well-documented in Arabian and Indian maritime traditions. While clearly mythologized, it reflects real phenomena: Father Colin and others reported strong magnetic activity in the Philippines, particularly along the western coast.

Even today, magnetite is actively mined in the Philippines—including offshore deposits—as confirmed by the National Museum and multiple mining reports. Such deposits are rare globally, yet abundant in the Philippines.

And the number? Ptolemy speaks of ten islands—which strikingly corresponds to the ten major islands of the Philippine archipelago. Japan does not fit this numerical nor magnetic profile.

So whether myth or magnified memory, this legend once again points unmistakably to the Philippines—not Japan—as the true Maniole of Ptolemaic geography.
Zoom View
1492 Behaim Globe

📖 Silver, Gold, and Pearl Islands

Ravenstein (p. 89):

“argira (L 8 s), Argyra, the Silver country (Ptol. VII.2)
crisis (L 8), Chryse, the Gold Island (Ptol. VII.2)
thilis (L 12), Tylos, the Island of Pearls (Ptol. VI.7)

🔹 Argyra – The Silver Country

📝 Note: Behaim places Argyra at Mindanao, yet Ravenstein claims it’s Arakan (modern-day Myanmar). How does one confuse Mindanao, the large island just north of Borneo, with a mainland region hundreds of miles away? That is either grossly incompetent geography or deliberate colonial propaganda. Gebhard does not even place Argyre but Ravenstein does on his facsimile as Mindanao and then, calls it Myanmar which on his map, as this one, is actually Aurea, not Malay.

🔸 Chryse – The Gold Island

📝 Note: Behaim places Chryse at Luzon, yet Ravenstein argues it’s the Malay Peninsula, also labeled on the same map. But the Malay Peninsula is clearly not an island—and yet Ravenstein identifies it as such while also labeling it as a peninsula on the same map. This isn’t just bad scholarship—it’s a logical failure.
Yes, Aurea Chersonesus (the Golden Peninsula) appears in Ptolemy—but every credible historical rendering of Chryse or Ophir treats it as an island, including biblical accounts, Magellan, and Columbus. Ravenstein contradicts them all. 

🔹 Tylos – The Pearl Island

📝 Note: Behaim places Thilis just west of Zipangu (Luzon), which fits Palawan, home to the largest pearls in recorded history. Yet Ravenstein insists this refers to Bahrain in the Persian Gulf (based on Pliny VI.32), despite Bahrain being nowhere near the South China Sea or the location Behaim marked.
He quotes Pliny but projects Roman trade geography onto Southeast Asia, ignoring Behaim’s own cartographic placement. How did Behaim know Bahrain wasn’t in the China Sea—but Ravenstein didn’t? That’s the question.
Zoom View
1492 Behaim Globe

🔍 A Textbook Case of Colonial Conflation

This is colonial paradigm enforcement in action. Ravenstein applies dislocated identities to known islands simply to redirect glory and biblical memory away from Southeast Asia—particularly the Philippines. The Malay Peninsula is never an island, and Tylos (Bahrain) is not in the South China Sea. These aren’t academic mistakes—they’re deliberate erasures.

Even more damning: Ravenstein acknowledges reading Konrad Miller’s reconstruction of Isidore of Seville, which clearly places Chryse, Paradise, and Argyra within the Philippine region. How does one miss that? This isn’t scholarship—it’s narrative control.

🪙 Chryse – The Island of Gold

  • “Chryse” means golden in Greek.

  • Luzon matches both the shape and coordinates.

  • Pereira equates Chryse with Zipangu, and Josephus confirms Ophir = Aurea = Chryse.

  • Columbus agrees: Aurea, Chryse, and Ophir are one and the same.

  • Ptolemy’s Chryse River flows through Aurea—an island, not a peninsula.

  • The Bible, the Age of Exploration, and classical geography all confirm this.

💠 Tylos – The Island of Pearls

  • Thilis (Tylos) is west of Zipangu—Palawan, by geography.

  • Palawan remains home to the largest pearls in history.

  • Japan has no such tradition, and Bahrain is a geographic mismatch.

  • Roman trade may have reached Bahrain—but that does not change where Ptolemy and Behaim placed Tylos.

🪙 Argyra – The Island of Silver

  • Drawn northeast of Borneo in the shape of Mindanao.

  • Mindanao is rich in silver and gold, matching the biblical Tarshish.

  • Ptolemy places Argyra as the capital of Iabadiou—a land Magellan corrected into the Visayas, near Catigara and Sabadibae, all consistently mapped as the Philippines for over 600 years.

These are not different places—they are different names for the same archipelago, known and revered across cultures and centuries.

✅ Conclusion:

Ravenstein’s misidentifications are not based on evidence, but on a colonial framework determined to dislocate ancient prestige from the Philippines.

The Philippines—not Japan, India, or Arabia—matches the geographic, mineral, and cultural markers of the Silver, Gold, and Pearl Islands described by Ptolemy, Pliny, and the Bible.

This isn’t theory.
This isn’t speculation.
This is documented, repeatable, and observable truth—
erased not by evidence, but by empire.

📖 Ophir, Havilah, and Biblical Gold

German:
"in deni buck genesis findt man dass diss landt da der ganges lausst gehaissen ist hevilla da foll da foll wachsen das best golt in der welt ist in der heilige geschrift im 3 buch der konik in den 9 und 10 capitel ist gesckriebe dass konik Salomon seine schiff hie her fchicket und liefs kolen difes goldtes und kofliche perlein und edelgestain von ophir gen jerujalem difs landt giilat und ophir da der fluff gauges oder daf wafer gion durch fleufl hat zusamm gehort."

English Translation:
"In the Book of Genesis it is stated that this country through which flows the Ganges is called Havilla (Havilah). The best gold in the world is said to grow there. In Holy Writ, in the 3rd book of Kings, chapters 9 and 10, it is written, that King Solomon sent his ships hither and had brought from Ophir to Jerusalem of this gold and valuable pearls and precious stones. This country of Giilat (Havilah) and Ophir, through which flows the river Ganges or the water of Gion (Gihon), belonged together."

⚱️ Key Analysis:

This Behaim inscription directly connects Ophir with Havilah (Genesis 2), identifying it as the Land of Gold—a description consistent with both Josephus and biblical geography. Importantly:

  • Genesis 2:11–12 describes Havilah as the land with the best gold, bdellium, and onyx.

  • The Hebrew word “tôwb” (Strong’s #2896) means good, abundant, or excellent—indicating abundance, not scarcity.
Zoom View
1492 Behaim Globe

🌏 Southeast Asia — Not India

India was never the source of biblical gold. Even ancient trade documents like the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea clearly state that India received gold from the islands to its east—namely the South China Sea and beyond. That includes the Philippines, which was known in antiquity by names such as Chryse, Ophir, Argyre, and Iabadiou.

Ravenstein’s conflation of Ophir and the Indian subcontinent is a recycling of Ptolemaic error—one that was corrected by Magellan and Columbus, both of whom identified these lands within the Philippines.

  • Columbus placed Ophir/Chryse between 10°–22°N, directly matching the Philippines.

  • Magellan landed between 12°–13°N, near Samar and Homonhon, the very center of the archipelago.

  • Behaim places Aurea, the golden island, adjacent to this inscription, affirming that he too understood Aurea = Ophir = Havilah.

🧭 Correcting Ptolemy's Errors

Ptolemy, for all his influence, missed the entire Pacific Ocean, the Malay Peninsula, and tens of thousands of Southeast Asian islands. His Asia was geographically deficient and outdated even by the 1st century A.D.

What later scholars like Ravenstein tried to pass off as the Malay Peninsula on Ptolemaic maps is actually Burma (modern Myanmar)—not a peninsula at all. There is no peninsula in Ptolemy’s original directions. The Aurea Chersonesus label was a later Roman imposition, and not original to the biblical text.

Behaim’s globe does not reflect that error—it corrects it.

🪙 Final Word:

For thousands of years, Ophir (Chryse) and Tarshish (Argyre) have been placed on maps in Southeast Asia—specifically within the Philippine archipelago.

This is not speculation.
This is not a forgotten guess.
This is historically documented, textually consistent, and cartographically confirmed.

“The land of Havilah, where there is gold… and the gold of that land is good.” – Genesis 2:11–12

Indeed, that land still exists—and it's not India, not Africa, and not Arabia.
It’s the Philippines.

📖 Nippon on the Behaim Globe

What about the islands north of the Tropic of Cancer? They’re on the map too—but they are not Zipangu.

Nippon (or Nihon), known as Rìběn in Chinese, was the name used in the Grand Khan’s letter to the King of Japan—not Zipangu. The nation we now call Japan has no linguistic connection to “Zipangu” whatsoever—a fact acknowledged even by several Japanese scholars.

Yes, Japan does appear on the Behaim Globe—but without honor or distinction.

  • It is merely identified as part of “Indies Cathay”, i.e., the Indies east of China.

  • There is no special annotation, no gold, no pearls, no spices.

  • No mention of Zipangu, Lequios, or the legendary wealth described by Marco Polo.

In other words, Japan is not the target of Columbus, Magellan, or the explorers of the Age of Discovery.

Columbus, in his own journals, clearly places Zipangu at 20°–22°N—coordinates that perfectly match Luzon in the Philippines, not a single Japanese island.

Anyone claiming that Japan lies south of the Tropic of Cancer—displacing Luzon to do so—is not a scholar.
They are a propagandist.

📍The Geographic Problem:

  • Japan’s major islands fall far north of Zipangu’s mapped location.

  • The large, richly annotated island below the Tropic of Cancer on Behaim’s globe matches Luzon—in both latitude and description.

  • Attempts to conflate tiny Ryukyu into that island have no scholarly merit. Ryukyu is clearly marked elsewhere on historical maps—and never as Zipangu.
Zoom View
1492 Behaim Globe

✝️ Jesuit Rewriting of Geography:

It was Jesuit cartographers, centuries later, who retroactively reassigned Zipangu to Japan and Lequios to Ryukyu—a move driven by religious and political agendas, not historical accuracy.

While Japan is a remarkable land with its own rich history, it does not match the biblical resource profile or classical descriptions of the Isles of Gold, Chryse, Ophir, or Argyre.

🧭 Restoring the Record

History does not need to be rewritten. It only needs to be read properly.

The ancient maps still exist. The descriptions are still visible. And when tested—by geography, resource alignment, and historical trade—the evidence speaks clearly:

  • Zipangu is Luzon.

  • Lequios is Northwest Luzon to Batanes.

  • Japan is not the Land of Gold.

The truth is still there for those who have the courage to test it.


🔍 Smoking Quill Verdict:

Gebhard’s 1853 facsimile is not just a decorative curiosity — it’s an unintentional exposé.

The island described as Cipangu is unmistakably tropical, overflowing with gold, bananas, spices, and encircled by more than 12,000 inhabited isles—a description that perfectly matches the Philippine archipelago, not the temperate, volcanic islands of Japan.

Marco Polo recorded 7,448 islands in the realm of Zipangu. The Philippines today numbers over 7,641 islands—nearly a perfect match. Japan, by contrast, has only four major islands and a few hundred smaller islets, failing over 60% of Polo’s material requirements, including gold reserves, spice production, pearls, white pepper, and even climate.

Behaim—a Portuguese court navigator, knight, sailor, and designer of the astrolabe—had access to the most advanced intelligence of his time, including Eastern trade records long before Columbus sailed. His map reflects that insider data.

Let’s be clear:

  • Japan is on the map—labeled as Indies Cathay, without distinction.

  • There is no Zipangu label on Japan.

  • There is no note of gold, spice, or resource wealth.

Any modern attempt to move Zipangu northward and displace Luzon with Japan is not academic work—it is colonial revisionism dressed in scholarly robes.

📍 This globe, and Gebhard’s preservation of it, prove one thing resoundingly:

Zipangu was never Japan. It was the Philippines all along.

This is no longer a question of possibility—it is a matter of record.
And the record has survived.


#ZipanguExposed
#SmokingQuill
#AncientMaps
#PhilippinesHistory
#BehaimGlobe
#CipanguTruth
#LuzonIsZipangu
#JesuitRevisionism
#OphirRevealed
#ChryseIsles
#HistoricalTruth
#ColonialMythBusting
#BiblicalGeography
#MarcoPoloMaps
#MagellanCorrectedPtolemy
#RestoringHistory
#IslesOfGold
#LuzonLegacy
#SoutheastAsiaRevealed
#CartographicEvidence
ADDITION:

🗺️ A Jesuit Colonial Trail of Tears for Marco Polo's Zipangu
The visual record of how truth was displaced, overwritten, and erased.

🎉 “The maps were never lost… only silenced. Now, the silenced speak.”

1629 – Solórzano Pereira’s Claim That Zipangu = Japan
In one sentence, centuries of mapmaking are overwritten. No new evidence is offered — just a declaration. This marks a strategic shift in Jesuit geopolitical storytelling, effectively removing Chryse from Southeast Asia and forcing it onto Japan’s shores. Here is what the maps tell us.

[For Lequois Trail of Tears]
“The final page wasn’t colonial ink — it was joy, justice, and memory.”

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