Mahd adh Dhahab

The Saudi Arabian Directorate General of Mineral Resources carried out further gold exploration in the 1970s, following the 1971 suspension of the US$-gold exchange rate and the consequent rise in value of the metal.

[citation needed] There is a possibility that the Cradle of Gold is mentioned in the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis.

Research by archaeologists Juris Zarins of Missouri State University and Farouk El-Baz of Boston University indicates that the Pishon may be the now dried up riverbed that once flowed 600 miles northeast of Mahd al-Dhahab c. 3000 BC.

Among their finds are huge quantities of waste rock, an estimated million tons, left by the ancient miners, still containing traces of gold.

Thousands of stone hammers and grindstones were used to extract the gold from the ore litter the mine slopes.