One of the fallen stele.
A beautifully decorated modern church.
The hike to the monasteries.
The modern church built in the 1960's where women can worship.
And the interior.
One of the illustrated early texts.
The museum that housed all the kings and clothing of the ancient kings.
The building, with the small dome, that houses the Ark of the Covenant.
Street scenes in the old city.
A female church leader, who talked to us and showed us around the outside of 'her' church.
Friday, January 26th.
Today we had the option of taking an optional tour with Kaleb, or doing our own thing. Seven of the twelve of us opted for the self guided tour. John and I headed out with Kay, Mary, My, Sasha and Rosie. Sasha had a Lonely Planet book and she played the role of guide.
We walked from the hotel up the main street to a tourist information building where we bought an entrance ticket for the ancient sites and got an information booklet.
Then we walked for about a half hour to the excavated old part of Axum. The first thing we found were the ‘stele’ (like obelisks of Egypt, tall carved stone pillars) of Axum. There was a field with four or five really tall ones. One was leaning at a good angle and had to be held up with cables. Another, which was the tallest stone structure ever raised by an ancient civilization had fallen over, probably when they tried to stand it, and lay broken on the ground. A third one was standing properly but had not always been there. In fact, it was stolen by the Italians in the 1930’s, on orders from Mussolini and taken to Italy. It took decades of negotiating between the two countries, and some serious consideration about aircraft load limits, and road limits before it could be returned. In fact, the airport at Axum and to have its runaway extended to allow a plane that could handle the length and weight of the granite rock structure, to be able to land successfully.
At the same site there were a couple of underground tombs of kings that we could enter and a museum with some artefacts that they had discovered in the area. The ancient city of Axum is mostly buried under the current city and has not yet been thoroughly excavated, so there is probably lots to discover.
We visited another church which was beautifully decorated with more religious paintings.
After that we went for a three kilometre walk out of town, along a country road towards two more tombs of kings. On the walk we came across a little stone building that housed the Ezana Stone which is sometimes described as the ‘Rosetta stone’ of Axum. It is a monolith standing about five feet, that is inscribed in three languages,in Ge’ez (the ancient Eritrean/Ethiopian language), Sabaean (South Arabian) and Greek. It was discovered in a farmer’s field in 1999. The tombs were again under ground and we could walk down the steps to the chambers. We saw the stone sarcophagus and some carving on the walls. The most interesting thing was stone workmanship of the walls. The stones were meticulously carved and assembled.
We continued to walk towards the two monasteries, but got a bit confused in our directions. We came to the first and decided not to climb the hill, because Lonely Planet said basically that there was not much to see up there except the view. From there we could see the other one up on another hill, but it was at least another kilometre away. We decided to forego that as we had other things we wanted to see. So, we turned around and retraced our steps through the lovely, dry farmland, all the while answering the endless questions of the kids who followed us and asked where we came from, what was our name and then said ‘give me a pen’ or ‘give me money’. They became quite annoying.
Next, we tried to visit another large church built in the 60’s to give women a place to worship, but there was a mass going on and wouldn’t open again until three. So, we decided to walk back towards the hotel to find a restaurant for lunch. We didn’t feel very comfortable to order food at the only one we could find, so we ordered a drink and got some bananas and snacks from a little shop across the street.
At three we returned to the church which was large and round, with beautiful paintings on the walls. A guide and a monk showed us a large scripture book from the 15-century with gorgeous colour pictures in it that they still use for mass. Behind that there was an old church that only men are allowed in, so John and I went there while the women went to a museum. We were shown around the church by a guide and a monk who showed us the ancient paintings that were hidden behind curtains to protect them from the sun. Somehow this church was not as impressive as others we had seen. When we left we joined the women in the museum, but first we had to leave our cameras and everything in our pockets in a locker. Inside the museum where dozens of ornate gold and silver crowns of the kings. There were other artefacts as well, chalices, robes, swords, shields and other relics of the day. They were just haphazardly displayed, without much lighting. Apparently, they are going to build a new modern museum to house them.
Beside the old church was another square building that rumour has it, houses the Ark of the Covenant which holds the tablets Moses got containing the 10 commandments. But no one has seen them. Only one man is allowed to see them, and he is locked up in the building permanently and protects them until his death. Then another monk is picked. Because of this secrecy some religious scholars doubt their truth.
The last thing we did was to take a walk through the old part of the city. This was the highlight of the day. The area was pretty poor and run down, but the buildings had character and the people were warm and friendly. We said hi and smiled and they would return it. It was a great experience and we wandered around for the better part of an hour.
But then it was time to walk back to the hotel to meet the rest of the group for dinner. After a briefing, most of the group decided to go out for dinner. John and I stayed and ate at the hotel with Gary (as Ellen was feeling poorly). We had a good time talking about travel and other things. But when the bill came and we were told the buffet we’d had was 250 birr, Gary insisted that he only paid 150 last night. Even when Kaleb came over and told him it was 250 he disagreed. So, Kaleb told him to pay 150 and he gave the waitress the extra 100! Very strange. After that we broke up and we went to bed.
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