"Ophir"

Ophir was the distant land to which the fleets of Phoenicia sailed on behalf of Israel's King Solomon to acquire for him gold to build the Temple at Jerusalem. Its exact location has never been confirmed. In 1 Kings 9:26-28 we read:

And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.
And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.
And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents and brought it to king Solomon.

    The amount of gold retrieved was extensive. Four hundred and twenty talents is about fourteen hundred pounds. Another biblical passage (2 Chronicles) suggests that the voyage round trip took three years to complete.
    The land of Ophir is described variously --a place in the east, a place of rivers and mountains, land of the sun, a place inhabited where even apes are found. No one has yet found this land of legend, although many have suggested various locations, in Africa, in India, and even in the Americas.
    It is believed that King Solomon sent two fleets out to Ophir: one through the Red Sea, the route known to the Egyptians, and another right through the Straits of Gibraltar. It is generally assumed that both fleets sailed to a port on the coast of east Africa. But if it is true that Hiram's ships made the voyage in no less than three years, that location in Africa does not lend itself to this fact.... Many have suggested that Peru may indeed have been Ophir. Etymologically, the names of both places may have the same meaning: O-phir, "the land of fire," and Pir-u, "the land of fire."