Axum

Axum was the centre of a kingdom that traded with Rome, India and Arabia and minted its own coinage, and its most visible legacy is a field of granite stelae carved to look like multi-storey buildings, complete with false doors and window frames. The largest standing example rises over twenty metres; a taller one lies broken where it fell, probably during erection, and would have been the largest single stone block ever raised anywhere. Beneath them are rock-cut tombs. Elsewhere in town are the ruins attributed to the Queen of Sheba's palace, a bath, inscribed stones in three scripts, and the church of St Mary of Zion, where the Ark of the Covenant is said to be kept in a guarded chapel that only one monk may enter.

History

Excavations on the hill of Beta Giyorgis above Axum show a pre-Aksumite settlement of about the 7th to 4th centuries BC, the Stele Park has been in use since the beginning of the common era, and by the 1st century AD the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea called Aksum a metropolis. Its stelae began as rough grave markers and grew into dressed granite monuments carved to look like multi-storey towers, some of the largest monuments in the world; Cosmas Indicopleustes, visiting in the 520s, described the king's four-towered palace with bronze statues of unicorns, and inscribed thrones recorded the wars of kings such as Ezana and Kaleb. UNESCO added Axum's archaeological sites to the World Heritage List in 1980, and before the Tigray War began in 2020 it was a leading destination for foreign visitors (Wikipedia, Axum).

What to look for

• The northern stelae field - carved granite obelisks and the fallen giant.
• The rock-cut tombs - underground chambers beneath the stelae.
• St Mary of Zion - the church complex and the chapel said to hold the Ark.
• The Ezana Stone - a royal inscription in three scripts.

When to go

October to March is the dry season and the most comfortable. Timkat in January and the Feast of Maryam Zion in late November are major religious occasions in the town.

Good to know

Axum is high, at over two thousand metres, and dry. The chapel said to hold the Ark cannot be entered by anyone but its guardian, so the visit is to the compound rather than the relic. Tourist infrastructure in northern Ethiopia is limited and flight schedules change; build slack into any itinerary. Guides are effectively necessary given minimal signage.

Nearby

The Tigray rock churches lie east; Lalibela is south.