Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
which finished Aksum's agriculture and eventually led to drought and famine. The military argument claims that
Aksum was undermined by continual incursions from neighbouring tribes.
According to tradition, Aksumite power was usurped around the 9th century by the dreaded warrior Queen
Gudit (or Judit), a pagan or Jew, who killed the ruling king and burnt down the city. This legend seems to be born
out by at least two documents written at about this time and may represent a rare case of Ethiopian tradition mesh-
ing, at least partly, with reality.
Aksum
POP 54,000 / ELEV 2130M
Aksum is a riddle waiting to be solved. Did the queen of Sheba really call the town's
dusty streets home? Does the very same Ark of the Covenant that holds Moses' 10 Com-
mandments reside in a small Aksum chapel? Are there still secret hordes of treasure hid-
den inside undiscovered tombs? And what exactly do those famous stelae signify?
A QUICK GUIDE TO AKSUM'S STELAE
For as long as 5000 years, monoliths have been used in northeast Africa as tombstones and monuments to local
rulers. In Aksum, this tradition reached its apogee. Like Egypt's pyramids, Aksum's stelae were like great bill-
boards announcing to the world the authority, power and greatness of the ruling families. Aksum's astonishing
stelae are striking for their huge size, their incredible state of preservation, and their curiously modern look.
Sculpted from single pieces of granite, the later ones come complete with little windows, doors and even door
handles and locks that make them look remarkably like tower blocks.
Despite the stone being famously hard, Aksum's masons worked it superbly, often following an architectural
design that mirrored the traditional style seen in Aksumite houses and palaces (for more details on Aksumite ar-
chitecture,
Click here
).
Metal plates, perhaps in the form of a crescent moon and disc (pagan symbol of the sun), are thought to have
been riveted to the top of the stelae both at the front and back. The crescent is also an ancient pagan symbol, ori-
ginating from southern Arabia. In 1996 a broken plate that could have matched the rusty rivet holes atop a stele
was excavated from the Tomb of Brick Arches. It bore the effigy of a face, perhaps that of the ruler to whom the
plate's stele was dedicated. It's on display in the Archaeological Museum. Despite locals having long ago as-
signed king's names to each stele, nobody knows who they were dedicated to. (Though it
is
certain the kings
chosen by locals are incorrect.) For this reason, historians only use numbers to identify each stele.
Ethiopian traditions have it that the Ark of the Covenant's celestial powers were harnessed to transport the
mighty monoliths 4km from the quarries, and raise them; the largest weighed no less than 520 tonnes! Archaeolo-
gists are confident that the earthly forces of elephants, rollers and winches were responsible.
