The first great "Lost World" action-adventure, a precursor to Indiana Jones.

King Solomon's Mines (1885) is a popular novel by the English Victorian adventure writer and fabulist Sir H. Rider Haggard. The first English adventure novel set in Africa describes a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the missing brother of one of the party. The novel is Allan Quatermain's adventurous account of his quest through a dangerous, unknown area of Africa, accompanied by Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good. Sir Henry retains Quatermain to guide their expedition to find Sir Henry's brother, who had gone missing in the jungle to discover the legendary diamond mines of King Solomon. With the help of an ancient map, the adventurers set out from Durban, South Africa, and travel into the previously unexplored wilderness. For months they travel through the African bush, cross a great desert, where they almost die of thirst, and climb the snowy mountains known as "Sheba's Breasts", where it is so cold that they barely escape freezing to death. Eventually, they arrive in fertile Kukuanaland, where they help restore a native king to his rightful throne and discover the legendary diamond mines. Taking a different route, they find Sir Henry's brother stranded in an oasis. He has a broken leg, and is unable to go forward or back, and is thus rescued. They return to Durban and eventually to England, wealthy enough to live comfortable lives.

It is one of the first English adventure novels set in Africa and is considered to be the genesis of the lost world literary genre.