The Kingdom of the Queen of Sheba — the ancient Aksumite Empire's capital in the Tigray highlands, where 2,000-year-old granite obelisks taller than a ten-storey building mark the tombs of kings, and the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion claims to hold the Ark of the Covenant
Axum (also spelled Aksum) is a small city in Ethiopia's Tigray region and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Africa — the capital of the Aksumite Empire, which at its height in the 4th century CE controlled the Red Sea trade route between the Roman Empire and India, minted gold coins, and extended its territory from Sudan to southern Arabia. The city is dominated by its obelisks (stelae) — massive granite monoliths quarried in the nearby mountains and erected as funerary monuments for Aksumite kings. The Great Stele (Obelisk of Axum) stands 33 metres tall; the Stele of Axum (O…
The Aksumite Empire emerged from the pre-Aksumite kingdoms of the 5th–4th centuries BCE and reached its height between the 1st and 7th centuries CE. Under King Ezana (r. c. 320–360 CE), Aksum became one of the first states in the world to officially adopt Christianity — making the Ethiopian Orthodox Church one of the oldest Christian denominations in existence (antedating the conversion of Constantine by a few decades). Aksum controlled the port of Adulis on the Red Sea (near modern Massawa, Eritrea) and used it to trade with Rome, Arabia, Persia, India, and Sri Lanka in gold, ivory, obsidian…