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The proof of Aksum's
majestic lineage lies carved in shattered stone. In this isolated town in Ethiopia's northern highlands,
one of ancient Africa's greatest architectural triumphs was created-a 100-foot, 500-ton stela, the world's largest single-stone
obelisk. Some 1,700 years ago it was cracked from a syenite quarry, hauled nearly three miles by the strength of elephants
or men, and carved to look like a 13-story building. It probably fell as it was being raised, smashing the tomb it was meant
to mark. It remains where it landed, surrounded by more than a hundred other stelae. Some still stand, others lie toppled
and broken. All are reminders of Aksum's glory, testimony to its past as one of the world's great kingdoms.
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Aksum is a agricultural town surrounded by a patchwork of farms clinging to terraced mountains, cut off from the Red Sea by
Eritrea, which worth its independence from Ethiopia in 1993. But it was once the heart of a powerful kingdom that ruled parts
of modern-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, and, for a time, Yemen, and grew fat on the narrow sea's widereaching trade.
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The Queen of Sheba reigned here in the tenth century B.c., but it wasn't until the third century A.D.that Aksum really began
to thrive. At that time it ranked with the empires of Persia, China, and Rome. In the fourth century Aksum´s king, Ezana,
converted to Christianity and transformed his kingdom into one of the world's first Christian states. It was during Ezana's
reign, , that the Ark of the Covenant-the gilded wooden chest that holds the stone tablets on which God gave Moses the Ten
Commandments-was brought to Aksum. And it is here that the Ark still resides..
Ezana ruled over a prosperous kingdom and built a military force that conquered neighboring Meroé. But as Islam rose in the
seventh century,ChristianAksum began to crumble. In the end it lost its hold on the Red Sea and, as a result, contact with
the rest of the world. Encompassed on all sides by the enemies of their religion.
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The story of Aksum begins 3,000 years ago, when the Queen of Sheba ruled the land. According to the Old Testament the queen,
known to Ethiopians as Makeda, traveled to Jerusalem to visit King Solomon. Kebra Nagast says that when she returned home,
she was pregnant with Solomon's son, a child she named Menelik.
Menelik is the originator of the Solomonic dynasty, a nearly uninterrupted line of emperors, and it´s he who have brought
the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia.
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The Ark came first to an isolated monastery called Tana Kirkos. The monastery, now home to Christian monks, stands at the
tip of a long, stony peninsula on the eastern shore of Lake Tana, Ethiopia's largest lake, which gives its waters to the Blue
Nile.
When Menelik grew to be a man, he went to Jerusalem to meet his father, King Solomon. He stayed for three years, and when
he left, Solomon ordered the firstborn sons of his noblemen to accompany him and sent the Ark of the Covenant to protect them.
For safekeeping, Menelik brought the Ark to Tana Kirkos, where it stayed until King Ezana sent for it. The Ark is now hidden
in a small chapel in Aksum. It is guarded by one man, a monk named Abba Mekonen.
Abba Mekonen known as the Atang is the Keeper of the Ark,which is a great honor and the most solemn post in the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church.
He has been guarding theArk for four years and will continue to do so until his death. He never leaves the chapel compound,
and he is the only person allowed to see the Ark.
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The ancient origins of its Christianity are, literally, set in stone. When King
Ezana converted to Christianity in the fourth century, he covered stone monuments with inscriptions in Geez (Ethiopia's first
written language), South Arabian, and Greek, praising God. Aksum's conversion is also set in gold, on coins that Ezana inscribed
with crosses, and in ink, by a fourth-century writer named Rufinus.
Rufinus's chronicle tells the story of Frumentius, a young Christian from Tyre who encouraged Aksum's few Christians and likely
converted Ezana himself. Frumentius became Ethiopia's first bishop, and Ezana adopted Christianity as Aksum's official religion.
It took 200 years for Christianity to take root in Aksum, but today more than half of all Ethiopians are Christian, some 30
million people. The faith is the correct blend of Old and New Testament teachings. Great devotion is shown to the Virgin Mary,
Ethiopian Orthodox customs follows old testament laws, calling on members of the church to circurncise their male children
on the eighth day, rest on the Sabbath, and abstain from pork.
IN THE CENTURIES since its introduction, Christianity in Ethiopia has survived many threats. The most recent took the form
of the Communist regime during the 1970s and '80s, when political attempts to eliminate all religious practices in Ethiopia
backfired, giving rise to a tremendous resurgence of Christianity. Also in the 16th century the devil send one of his deciples,
the muslim Ahmad Gragn who had more success. From the walled city of Harer in eastern Ethiopia, Gragn invaded the highlands,
burning churches and forcing Christians to convert to Islam.
Another threat was Queen Gudit. Gudit was born into a royal family in the tenth century, got into trouble, and
left Aksum in disgrace. When she returned, she was armed with a lust for revenge and the military might of a king from the
south.
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By the time Gudit attacked Aksum, the kingdom had been in decline for centuries, but Gudit is eredited with delivering the
fatal blow. Storming through Aksum, she destroyed churches, forced the king to hide the Ark of the Covenant back at Tana Kirkos,
and, finally, invaded the capital, killed the king, and ascended the throne.
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The young state that rose from its ashes moved its Capital south, to an isolated town named Roha, later renamed in honor of
its most celebrated emperor: Lalibela.
Aksum is the holiest city because it is the first, the oldest, and because of what it has, the Ark, Lalibela is holy because
of its promise: Coming here is as good as going to Jerusalem.
The promise of Lalibela is readily apparent in its 12 remarkable rock-hewn churches.
Called prayers in stone, these churches carved from cliff faces and scooped out of the living rock to stand in deep stone
trencheswere molded from the regions red mountains some 800 years ago.They were built by angels, who helped Lalibela at night
while he and his legion of workers labored by day.
The most stunning is Bieta Giyorgis, a massive monolith intricately carved and shaped like a cross, all 40 feet of it below
ground level, its the heraitage of the whole world.
He who comes here to live, he who comes here to pray, he who comes here to die will be saved.
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