Ethiopia's Ancient Civilization of Axum

June 27, 2011 - PRLog -- AXUME
The early history of Ethiopia (also called Abyssinia) begins with the glorious but little known kingdom of Axum.

The origins of the Axumite state are now dated to the middle of the 2nd century BC. At the height of its power, between the 4th and 7th centuries AD, the Axumite kingdom. Controlled most of present-day Ethiopia, including territories in the southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The achievements of this grand culture are recorded today in the ruins of its cities, reservoirs, temples and, most remarkably, its towering black granite obelisks (stelae).

The tallest of the monoliths, now fallen and broken into six massive pieces, was 33.3 meters tall and weighed an estimated five tons (the largest Egyptian obelisk is that of King Tutmosis, 32.16 meters high). The tallest obelisk still standing at Axum today is 23 meters.

These stelae are known to be the tallest single pieces of stone ever quarried and erected in the ancient world. Due to their proximity to nearby tombs, the stelae may possibly have been used as memorials to deceased kings and queens and believed to have been carved and erected around the beginning of the 2nd century AD.

An even greater mystery surrounds the ancient city of Axum. In the compound of St. Mary of Zion, the holiest place of the nation, a strange looking, fenced off and heavily guarded “treasury” said to contain the true Arc of the Covenant.

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