Axum - Ethiopia
Jan. 17th, 2014 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
motodraconisThe Stele of Axum! 1700 years old and 24 metres tall!
This stele was pinched by the Italians during their Conquest of Ethiopia and (relatively short lived) Grand Fascist New Roman Empire. It had fallen in the 4th century and lain in 3 or possibly 5 pieces for centuries. Italy agreed to return the stele in 1947, but it took 50 years to complete that promise, mainly due to the complicated logistics and vast expense involved. The repatriation, completed and re-erected in September 2008 ultimately cost Italy $7.7m. (God help us if the British Museum and London ever have to return all the items the Brits have pinched.) Wikipedia describes the nightmarish complication of the return rather amusingly. The Stele is held together with eight aramid fiber (Kevlar) bars, and not the iron bars originally used by the Italians when they reassembled it in Porta Capena Square in Italy - which regrettably had turned the 24m tall granite obelisk into a bit of a lightening attractor.
I'd been really looking forward to seeing the Stelae of Axum, because they are so impressive but also distinctly strange in their design...
...resembling tower blocks of up to 13 stories high, complete with dinky little doors. The High Rises of the Heavens!
Only one stele has remained upright and unbowed, unbent and unbroken! Albeit slightly tipsy now and needing a little support just to be on the safe side...
Said to be "King Ezana's Stele" we were told that plans are afoot to try and right the stele so that its embarrassing and unsightly fat busting thong can be removed.
But one cannot mock the be-thonged Ezana Stele, which is doing well to have endured earthquakes and invasions relatively unscathed, as the 33m long, 3.84m wide and 2.32m deep Great Stele probably never achieved full erectile prominence, likely crashing to the ground during construction.
Though had it ever been elevated it would have looked amazing, and close up, the carved granite is still fresh and crisp... home to blue-legged lizards...
Beneath the monster and the site, a network of tombs...
This sarcophagus, still sealed (our guide tapped it so we could hear the hollow sound.) Scheduled to be X-Rayed or scanned or whatever fancy pants devices are now in vogue for the modern archaeologist.
On the west side of town, the Gudit Stelae field, roughly 4th century and reminding me somewhat of European menhirs.
Opposite themenhirs stelae, is the 4th to 6th century Dungur Mansion popularly known as The Queen of Sheba's Palace.
And, (as we were told) containing the Queen of Sheba's bakery, where she presumably mixed up her own flat-pancake injera.
Andthe local reservoir the Queen of Sheba's Bath, where she was wont to go and bathe of a morning. As you can see, still in use...
Axum, capital of the Aksumite Kingdom, was a major naval and trading nexus roughly between 400BC and the 10th century, (also called Abyssinia.) When trade routes were blocked by Islamic groups, the final blow to Axum came in the form of a pagan Warrior Queen named Gudit who legend has it, sacked the city and took the throne for herself. As ever, there are many different tales... choose the most fun, but certainly Axum has a rich and venerable history, and claim to famous and intriguing characters.
We also saw the Ezana Stone, inscribed in 3 languages... Ge'ez (the ancient Eritrean/Ethiopian language), Sabaean (South Arabian) and Greek, where the recently converted to Christianity King boasts of his victories.
We clambered into more tombs...
Disturbing ancient and hideous monsters from their subterranean resting place...
Before fleeing to the upper, sunlit world, outside the New Cathedral of St Mary of Zion...
This the new cathedral. The original St Mary of Zion behind it is said to have been built by Ezana and is men only (a recurring theme that I have to say, was one thing that really got on my tits regarding Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.) Our guide told us that when the Emperor Haile Selassie visited the old cathedral, he went inside for an important ceremony, leaving his wife, Empress Menen Asfaw twiddling her thumbs outside for three hours. She was not impressed, and pointed outhow utterly crap unjust it was that the women of Axum had no where to worship - so the New (and much larger) cathedral was built - for the use of both genders.
But let's get back to the real, authentic history. Legend has it that Axum was conquered and ruled for 400 years by a vicious serpent named Awre.
...this serpent had to be appeased by a diet of milk and maidens, and oppressed the people with its evil ways. But one day, a stranger named Agabos came into town... and promised to rid Axum of the serpent in return for the crown. The people agreed, and eagerly awaited the promised sword show, but instead, Agabos poisoned the serpent with a dodgy goat. He was proclaimed King and his daughter became the Queen of Sheba...
Although, I rather like this version of the tale, where a brave girl named Makeda kills the serpent and is proclaimed Queen - Queen of Sheba. She later visits King Soloman, who frankly, is a bit rapey with her. The result was a son, the first King Menelik, progenitor of the Solomonic line of the Kings of Ethiopia.
However, the Queen had the last laugh. She sent her son to visit his father, and somehow... the Ark of the Covenant, sort of, went missing from Jerusalem, and fetched up in Menelik's luggage (hidden under his socks no doubt.) The Ark was brought back to Axum, where it remains to this day, in this very building...
Which you are not allowed to enter, or even approach too closely to. One single monk is allowed in the building to tend the Ark for the whole of his life, and when that monk dies, another monk is chosen to replace him. No one else may enter. Not that you'd want to, as you'd catch fire if you looked at the Ark.
*cough*
Goats in the market of Axum...
The gorgeous library in Axum...
And that, my friends, is the fabulous and ancient historic city of Axum. All true! Every word!
This stele was pinched by the Italians during their Conquest of Ethiopia and (relatively short lived) Grand Fascist New Roman Empire. It had fallen in the 4th century and lain in 3 or possibly 5 pieces for centuries. Italy agreed to return the stele in 1947, but it took 50 years to complete that promise, mainly due to the complicated logistics and vast expense involved. The repatriation, completed and re-erected in September 2008 ultimately cost Italy $7.7m. (God help us if the British Museum and London ever have to return all the items the Brits have pinched.) Wikipedia describes the nightmarish complication of the return rather amusingly. The Stele is held together with eight aramid fiber (Kevlar) bars, and not the iron bars originally used by the Italians when they reassembled it in Porta Capena Square in Italy - which regrettably had turned the 24m tall granite obelisk into a bit of a lightening attractor.
I'd been really looking forward to seeing the Stelae of Axum, because they are so impressive but also distinctly strange in their design...
...resembling tower blocks of up to 13 stories high, complete with dinky little doors. The High Rises of the Heavens!
Only one stele has remained upright and unbowed, unbent and unbroken! Albeit slightly tipsy now and needing a little support just to be on the safe side...
Said to be "King Ezana's Stele" we were told that plans are afoot to try and right the stele so that its embarrassing and unsightly fat busting thong can be removed.
But one cannot mock the be-thonged Ezana Stele, which is doing well to have endured earthquakes and invasions relatively unscathed, as the 33m long, 3.84m wide and 2.32m deep Great Stele probably never achieved full erectile prominence, likely crashing to the ground during construction.
Though had it ever been elevated it would have looked amazing, and close up, the carved granite is still fresh and crisp... home to blue-legged lizards...
Beneath the monster and the site, a network of tombs...
This sarcophagus, still sealed (our guide tapped it so we could hear the hollow sound.) Scheduled to be X-Rayed or scanned or whatever fancy pants devices are now in vogue for the modern archaeologist.
On the west side of town, the Gudit Stelae field, roughly 4th century and reminding me somewhat of European menhirs.
Opposite the
And, (as we were told) containing the Queen of Sheba's bakery, where she presumably mixed up her own flat-pancake injera.
And
Axum, capital of the Aksumite Kingdom, was a major naval and trading nexus roughly between 400BC and the 10th century, (also called Abyssinia.) When trade routes were blocked by Islamic groups, the final blow to Axum came in the form of a pagan Warrior Queen named Gudit who legend has it, sacked the city and took the throne for herself. As ever, there are many different tales... choose the most fun, but certainly Axum has a rich and venerable history, and claim to famous and intriguing characters.
We also saw the Ezana Stone, inscribed in 3 languages... Ge'ez (the ancient Eritrean/Ethiopian language), Sabaean (South Arabian) and Greek, where the recently converted to Christianity King boasts of his victories.
We clambered into more tombs...
Disturbing ancient and hideous monsters from their subterranean resting place...
Before fleeing to the upper, sunlit world, outside the New Cathedral of St Mary of Zion...
This the new cathedral. The original St Mary of Zion behind it is said to have been built by Ezana and is men only (a recurring theme that I have to say, was one thing that really got on my tits regarding Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.) Our guide told us that when the Emperor Haile Selassie visited the old cathedral, he went inside for an important ceremony, leaving his wife, Empress Menen Asfaw twiddling her thumbs outside for three hours. She was not impressed, and pointed out
But let's get back to the real, authentic history. Legend has it that Axum was conquered and ruled for 400 years by a vicious serpent named Awre.
...this serpent had to be appeased by a diet of milk and maidens, and oppressed the people with its evil ways. But one day, a stranger named Agabos came into town... and promised to rid Axum of the serpent in return for the crown. The people agreed, and eagerly awaited the promised sword show, but instead, Agabos poisoned the serpent with a dodgy goat. He was proclaimed King and his daughter became the Queen of Sheba...
Although, I rather like this version of the tale, where a brave girl named Makeda kills the serpent and is proclaimed Queen - Queen of Sheba. She later visits King Soloman, who frankly, is a bit rapey with her. The result was a son, the first King Menelik, progenitor of the Solomonic line of the Kings of Ethiopia.
However, the Queen had the last laugh. She sent her son to visit his father, and somehow... the Ark of the Covenant, sort of, went missing from Jerusalem, and fetched up in Menelik's luggage (hidden under his socks no doubt.) The Ark was brought back to Axum, where it remains to this day, in this very building...
Which you are not allowed to enter, or even approach too closely to. One single monk is allowed in the building to tend the Ark for the whole of his life, and when that monk dies, another monk is chosen to replace him. No one else may enter. Not that you'd want to, as you'd catch fire if you looked at the Ark.
*cough*
Goats in the market of Axum...
The gorgeous library in Axum...
And that, my friends, is the fabulous and ancient historic city of Axum. All true! Every word!
