Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
This well-laid-out museum in the Northern Stelae Field contains an interesting variety of
objects found in the tombs, ranging from ordinary household objects, such as lamps and
incense burners, to quite sophisticated glassware. You'll also see beautiful lion gargoyles,
a charming pot shaped like a three-legged bird, well-preserved Sabaean and Ge'ez inscrip-
tions dating back over 2500 years, an amphora from Turkey or Cyprus that provides evid-
ence of ancient trading routes and a particularly nice collection of Aksumite coins. You
can take a coffee ceremony outside the exit.
AKSUMITE COINS
Aksumite coins are valuable not just for their beauty: they also provide a vital source of information on the an-
cient kingdom. The coins bear the names, effigies and sometimes lineage of 23 different kings providing a rare
factual record of who ruled and when. The historians who studied them found something that rocked the founda-
tions of traditional Ethiopian history. Many of the kings of the traditional history failed to appear on the coins
while those on the coins failed to appear in the historical lists.
Beautifully struck, the coins depict the royal crowns, clothing and jewellery of the kings (even the large ear-
rings worn by some monarchs) and probably served propagandist purposes. A curiosity still unexplained by his-
torians is the fact that almost all the coins are double-headed: on one side the king is depicted with his crown; on
the other he dons a modest head cloth.
Farmers frequently find coins in their fields and because the Ethiopian government lacks the budget to buy
them, most are sold illegally to collectors and tourists. Both the sale and purchase is illegal and airport staff are
trained to look for them during security searches so you're taking a risk (and harming historical research) if you
buy them.
St Mary of Zion Churches
Offline map
(admis- sion Birr200, personal video cameras Birr100; 7.30am-12.30pm &
2.30-5.30pm Mon-Fri, 9am-noon & 2.30-5.30pm Sat & Sun)
Though religions have come
and gone, Aksum remains a holy city throughout. Opposite the Northern Stelae Field, in a
walled compound, lies the centre of the universe for Christian Ethiopians.
A church of some form or other has stood at this spot since the very earliest days of
Ethiopian Christianity and it was God himself who, descending from heaven, indicated
that a church should be built here, though the original church is long gone. The rectangu-
lar
old church
(men only) at the southern end of the complex is a remarkable example of
traditional architecture built by the Emperor Fasiladas, the founder of Gonder, in 1665. In-
side there are fine original murals, including a painting of the Nine Saints (
Click here
)
.
CHURCHES
