Ancient Axum

May 7—The Simien mountains in northern Ethiopia are high and rugged. In these mountains Ethiopian armies soundly defeated Italian colonial troops in the historic Battle of Adua. That was in 1896. That victory solidified Ethiopia’s prestigious status as the only African country never to be the colony of a European power.

The drive through the mountains is magnificent, but too time-consuming for most contemporary travelers, including us. We flew over them and landed at a modern airport in the ancient highland town of Axum, the historic centre of Ethiopian civilization. Today it is a bustling town with a rapidly expanding tourist trade.

It is best known for a park full of great steles (obelisks), which mark the graves of kings who ruled before the time of Christ. The tallest of these monoliths (carved from single pieces of hard rock) once stood more than 100 feet high, much larger than any Egyptian obelisk. Today it lies broken on the ground. Another, about 80 feet high, was looted by invading Italians in 1937. They bowed to pressure and returned it in 2004. It is being re-erected. The tallest obelisk rises majestically 75 feet into the air amidst a grove of lesser steles.

Beginning in 270 AD, the ancient Axumites began producing coin currency. After Christianity arrived in the region about 340, Axum imprinted coins with a cross, the first official currency ever to feature the Christian symbol.

The hills around Axum are rife with rocks. Stone walls mark the borders between properties; farmers plough stony fields and build rock houses. The rock foundations of an ancient palace (purported to belong to the Queen Sheba) demonstrate the reality of an advanced civilization in the area hundreds of years before Christ. According to various sources, including the Bible, the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon. Ethiopian traditions maintain that the first king of Ethiopia, Menelik I, is their son. And that he brought the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Axum.

Indeed, Ethiopian Orthodox believe that the Ark of the Covenant is still here, in a vault below the Church of St. Mary of Tsion. Only the guardian of the ark is permitted ever to see it. It is his life calling. We visited the church and read Scripture about the construction of the ark. We did not see the guardian; we did not see the ark.

Ethiopia is full of surprises. A new museum on church properties showcases antique monarchial robes and crowns, magnificent priestly vestments, well-rendered icons, immense processional crosses of gold and silver, old liturgical manuscripts and much more. Ethiopia is full of treasures.