By Lubna Abdel-Aziz It is round our necks, on our chest, our fingers, our wrists, anklets, ear-lobes, teeth, and now on our minds and lips on a daily basis. It is the most precious of all metals, bright yellow, flaming red, gleaming, glistening, gold. It is the gold rush of the new millennium, with its rising prices going through the roof, leaving us all in a conundrum. Some want to sell, some want to buy, while some others wear a Cheshire cat smile as they watch their wise investments grow in value by the minute. As economies swing from inflation to recession, "as good as gold" acquires a new significance, with the fluctuations of world markets and paper currencies. Can we help it if we cherish this intense love for gold! It does not fluctuate or alternate -- it remains steady and steadfast since pre-historic times enchanting us with its burning glow. In fact we love it so much we can eat it up, and we do. Gold leaf or gold flake is found in some gourmet foods, sweets and drinks. And why not? How can something so rare, so beautiful, be anything but beneficial for one's health, so thought the nobility and others in Medieval Europe. Why, even today some modern esoterics and advocates of alternate medicine assign metallic gold as a healing power. If you have tasted the German liquor "Goldwasser," then you too have imbibed some gold leaf. But not to worry, metallic gold adds no taste, has no nutritional value and leaves the body unaltered. A mark of wealth for thousands of years, it is not known when gold was first discovered. About the same time that gold cups and jewellery were uncovered in Mesopotamia (now Iraq, 3500 BC), sumptuous gold jewellery was found in Egyptian tombs. So intricate and advanced was the workmanship, it left little doubt that Egyptian artisans were well familiar with this special metal. The craft of working with gold must have been developed hundreds of years before. Its charms, its light and lustre were never lost to the human race. The gold of the pharaohs suggests that it was in such abundance, their very houses were made of gold. Yet those vast quantities amounted to a limited production of no more than one ton. Surely that could not have supplied the solid gold coffin of Tutankhamen, the gold masks, and the buried treasures found in his tomb. All that gold that stunned the Howard Carter expedition and dazzled the rest of the world came from gifts, or was imported or captured in warfare. Were they made of silver, copper bronze or stone, would they have created the same hysteric frenzy? Gold and Egypt seem inseparable, whether mined locally or imported. Egyptian hieroglyphs describe gold as "more plentiful than dirt" (2600 BC) and Egypt has remained a major gold producer ever since the days of the pharaohs. Across the Red Sea Saudi Arabia has large gold mines, while Jerusalem is described in the Book of Revelations as having streets made of pure gold. The Southeast corner of the Black Sea, home of the legendary King Midas, gold mines prospered - hence the saying "The Midas Touch," It was during his reign that the establishment of the world's earliest coinage occurred in Lydia, between 640 and 630 BC. In his Encyclopedia Historica (190 AD), Pliny the Elder described the hydraulic mining methods of ancient Romans extracting gold on a large scale from their vast empire, like Spain, Romania and Wales. Was the European exploration of the Americas triggered by their curiosity, their magnanimity, their sense of adventure, or was it in fact the lure of gold? Reports of gold ornaments displayed by native Americans was temptation enough, not to mention the wealth amassed by Hernando Cortez and his Spanish Conquistadores from Montezuma's Aztec Empire. Tales of Aztec gold were the source of the growing legend of El Dorado, a land so rich in gold leading many explorers to seek its shores, and the search continues. The rich gold discoveries in California, Australasia, Alaska, and South Africa were all believed to be "El Dorado" at first. Each discovery began a gold rush, the most famous being in California. People from all over the world converged in the area to fill their coffers with gold. Thus was created the State of California. A year ago South Africa, which had been the world's largest gold producer since 1880 was, for the first time, overtaken by another country - China. Is there anything China does not excel at? Whether it's the sensational discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamen or the Conquistadores' search for El Dorado which resulted in the Spanish occupation of South and Central America for 300 years, or the 2nd Boer War of 1899 -- 1908 between Britain and South Africa, the acquisition of gold was the driving force. The high value of gold is due to its rare amount and limited output. Only 3 parts of every billion of the earth's crust is gold. It is the preferred adjective to describe the very best in every venue. When they found oil, they called it 'black gold.' When they wish to bestow awards of honour, like the Olympics or Nobel, gold is the metal of choice. When you own a gold credit card you are considered among the elite. And if you speak with a "mouth of gold" you are closely listened to. The price of gold is determined daily on the open market, and has fluctuated widely since 1968. It reached a high in 1980 to $850/oz, and dropped to a low of $250/ oz in 1999. The 1980 high was overtaken in January 2008 reaching $835.35/ounce, and by March 13th it had reached $1000, the highest price ever. Is that as high as it will get? Only time will tell. They say the oceans have large amounts of gold but as yet they have not discovered a commercially viable method of extracting it, and will unlikely do so in the near future. Meanwhile hang on dearly to all your gold possessions; not only are they infinitely more valuable, but they are forever stylish. In this fickle paper world, ruled by paper currency, surrounded by paper friends, what stands out as the steady, stable, solid, and steadfast supporter? Glittering, glowing, gleaming gold. What female heart can gold despise? What cat's averse to fish? Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
