Documentary Description
Michael Wood begins his quest with an exotic and mysterious woman of power —
the Queen of Sheba. Immortalized in the Hebrew Bible, the Muslim Koran
and in many Christian traditions, the tale of the Queen's journey to
Jerusalem to meet (and sleep with) King Solomon has been told and retold
for nearly 3,000 years. Wood's journey starts on Easter night in
Jerusalem and takes him round the Red Sea to Egypt, Eritrea and
Ethiopia, and the lost world of Axum, the little-known first
civilization of Black Africa. In the Yemen, he explores the stunning
monuments of Marib, the earliest civilization of Arabia.
But Wood is also looking for a living story, and on the
journey he discovers the legend of the Queen of Sheba alive in Arabia
and Ethiopia, where she is still viewed as the mother of the nation,
whose son brought the mythical Lost Ark of the Covenant back to Axum —
where it still resides today! "Hollywood made Sheba the lover of
Solomon and they made her white," says Wood. "In Africa she's black —
and a woman of power. In Arabia she's half woman, half demon. But the
tale of her transformations — from exotic and mysterious alien to
eternal female, from fantasy mother and lover, to cloven footed demon —
is a parable of so many women of power throughout history!"
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