WORLD HERITAGE SITES

Obelisk of Axum wikipedia

Axum or Aksum, Ethiopia

Axum or Aksum, is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015).

It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire, a naval and trading power that ruled the whole region from about 400 BCE into the 10th century. In 1980, UNESCO added Axum’s archaeological sites to its list of World Heritage Sites due to their historic value. Axum was the hub of the marine trading power known as the Aksumite Empire, which predated the earliest mentions in Roman-era writings. Around 356 CE, its ruler was converted to an Abyssinian variety of Christianity by Frumentius. Later, under the reign of the Emperor Kaleb, Axum was a quasi-ally of Byzantium against the Sasanian Empire which had adopted Zoroastrianism. The historical record is unclear with ancient church records being the primary contemporary sources.

It is believed the empire began a long and slow decline after the 7th century due partly to the Persians and then the Arabs contesting old Red Sea trade routes. Eventually the empire was cut off from its principal markets in Alexandria, Byzantium and Southern Europe and its share of trade captured by Arab traders of the era.

The Aksumite Empire was finally destroyed in the 10th century by Empress Gudit, and eventually some of the people of Axum were forced south and their old way of life declined. As the empire’s power declined so did the influence of the city, which is believed to have lost population in the decline, similar to Rome and other cities thrust away from the flow of world events. The last known (nominal) emperor

to reign was crowned in about the 10th century, but the empire’s influence and power had ended long before that.

Its decline in population and trade then contributed to the shift of the power hub of the Ethiopian Empire south to the Amhara region as it moved further inland. In this period the city of Axum became the administrative seat of an empire spanning one million square miles. Eventually, the alternative name of Ethiopia was adopted by the central region and then by the modern state that presently exists.

“Axum” (or its Greek and Latin equivalents) appears as an important centre on indigenous maps of the northern Horn of Africa in the 15th century.

The Aksumite Empire and the Ethiopian Church

The Aksumite Kingdom began to issue coins about AD 270. Silver and bronze coins for local, everyday use generally followed the design of Roman coins with a bust of the ruler in profile on at least one side. Axumite coins were the first in the ancient world to carry the cross as a symbol of the ruler’s devotion to Christianity. This 6th century gold coin probably depicts the Axumite king Ousas

The Aksumite Empire had its own written language, Geʽez, and developed a distinctive architecture exemplified by giant obelisks. The oldest of these, though relatively small, dates from 5000–2000 BCE.[9] The empire was at its height under Emperor Ezana, baptized as Abreha in the

Building supposedly containing the Ark of the Covenant at Maryam Sion church in Aksum Ethiopia wikipedia

4th century (which was also when the empire officially embraced Christianity).

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church claims that the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum houses the Biblical Ark of the Covenant, in which lie the Tablets of Stone

upon which the Ten Commandments are inscribed.[11] Ethiopian traditions suggest that

it was from Axum that Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, journeyed to visit King Solomon in Jerusalem and that the two had a son, Menelik, who grew up in Ethiopia but travelled to Jerusalem as a young man to visit his father’s homeland. He lived several years in Jerusalem before returning to his country with the Ark

of the Covenant. According to the Ethiopian Church and Ethiopian tradition, the Ark still exists in Axum. This same church was the site where Ethiopian emperors were crowned for centuries until the reign of Fasilides, then again beginning with Yohannes IV until the end of the empire.

Axum is considered to be the holiest city

in Ethiopia and is an important destination of pilgrimages. Significant religious festivals are the Timkat festival (known as Epiphany in western Christianity) on 19 January (20 January in leap years) and the Festival of Maryam Zion on 30 November[13] (21 Hidar on the Ethiopian calendar).

In 1937, a 24 m (79 ft) tall, 1,700-year-old Obelisk of Axum, was broken into five parts by the Italians and shipped to Rome to be erected. The obelisk is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of engineering from the height of the Axumite empire. Despite a 1947 United Nations agreement that the obelisk would be shipped back, Italy balked, resulting in a long-standing diplomatic dispute with the Ethiopian government, which views the obelisk as a symbol of national identity. In April 2005, Italy finally returned the obelisk pieces to Axum amidst much official and public rejoicing; Italy also covered the US$4 million costs of the transfer. UNESCO assumed responsibility for the re-installation of this stele in Axum, and by the end of July 2008 the obelisk had been reinstalled. It was unveiled on 4 September. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axum?msclkid=eda 67e69d0ba11ecb63aa01ce894b7f6Image credit: YouTube>Visit Liberia231