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80 tough decision: to abandon the project—which was out of the question—or to try to obtain the gold in a new way: mining. For gold, the Anunnaki knew by then, was naturally available in abun- dance in the AB.ZU ("The Primeval Source") on the continent of Africa. (In the Semitic languages that had evolved from the Sume- rian. Za-ab—Abzu in reverse—has remained the word for gold to this very day). There was, however, one major problem. The African gold had to be extracted from the depths of the earth through mining; and the far-reaching decision to change from the sophisticated water-treatment process to a backbreaking toil below the sur- face of the earth was not lightly taken. Clearly the new enter- prise required more Anunnaki. a mining colony in "the place of the shining lodes," expanded facilities in Mesopotamia, and a fleet of ore vessels (MA.GUR UR.NU AB.ZU— "Ships for Ores of the Abzu") to connect the two. Could Enki handle it all by himself? Anu felt that he could not; and eight Nibiru years after Enki's landing—28,800 Earth-years—he came to Earth to see things for himself. He came down accompanied by the Heir Apparent EN.LIL ("Lord of the Command")—a son who, Anu must have felt, could take charge of Earth mission and organize the gold de- liveries to Nibiru. The choice of Enlil for the mission might have been a necessary one, but it must have been an agonizing one as well; for it only sharpened the rivalry and jealousy between the two half-brothers. For Enki was the firstborn son of Anu by Id, one of his six concu- bines, and could have expected to follow Anu on Nibiru's throne. THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN