Axum - home of the Ark of the Covenant

South Stelae Field Axum

off to church - Axum

Axum - or Aksum - is at the very heart of Ethiopian history. Home to the Aksumite empire with a ruling dynasty allegedly descended from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba - spiritual home of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and home, it is said, of the Ark of the Covenant  - kept closely guarded in the Chapel of the Tablet in the compound of Maryam Tsion (St Mary of Zion church - the Old Cathedral - site of Ethiopia's first church - built on site of a former pagan shrine- and access denied to women - see also below).
Axum is therefore a very old and a very holy city, not immediately apparent as we approached last night in the dark wanting only our hotel, a meal, a drink and a rest.

Street scene Axum

In the mausoleum South Stelae Field

Detail of Remhae's Obelisk

For a start it has the tallest stelae or obelisks dating back to the third and fourth centuries, made of sandstone out of single blocks and curiously carved. What were they for? Probably they marked royal graves. Unique multi storey tower constructions with realistic carved doors and windows could represent their royal palaces or their "symbolic stairway to heaven."? How on earth were they erected into position? Probably by elephants, it is usually thought nowadays. In the South Stelae Park we saw:

Remhai's obelisk - the largest at 33 metres - shattered into five blocks across the ground - some say as it was erected. In total it weighs 520 tonnes. Who knows what skeletons may lie beneath?! Note the carved windows and door at the base.

Tomb of the False Door

Ezana's Stele is 23 metres tall with nine storeys of windows with a door at the base.

Inside the new cathedral Axum

The Roman Stele was taken in bits to Rome in the Italian occupation and was returned back to Axum in 2005. It has to be supported by a very ugly contraption.

Then there was the Tomb of the False Door - where we see blocks held together with metal clamps - and can appreciate the advanced skills of the original engineers.

And the ten funerary chambers off each side of a dark corridor in the underground Mausoleum

Chapel of the Tablet

First we had been to the Mai Shum reservoir - Bath of the Queen of Sheba - a water storage cistern of unknown age - but probably dating back at least to the seventeenth century - used still as a main water supply for the city -

Women going down to collect water at the Bath of
the Queen of Sheba

Funerary chamber within the Mausoleum

and a free swimming pool for all the local children - but of especial significance at the celebration of the Ethiopian Orthodox Epiphany or Timquat - when the replica Arks of the Covenant from all the local churches are taken in procession to Abuna Aregawi church south of the reservoir. The day after, at the Baptism of Christ, the spring water nearby is sprinkled over the people. Some of these nearby springs are said to have healing properties and have been visited for this purpose by Christians and Muslims alike for a very long time.

Then there is the Ark of the Covenant itself said to be in the Chapel of the Tablet in the cathedral compound across the road from the stelae field. In the same compound are two cathedrals - women are not allowed in the first so we all visit the second more modern one, built in the 1960s by the emperor Haile Selassie who opened it jointly with HM Queen Elizabeth.

We also went in the small Museum in the church compound near the Chapel of the Tablet - we have to leave all belongings in lockers outside the door and really didn't have enough time to examine all the artefacts, including ancient crowns, crosses and other church relics. I could have stayed a little longer than the allocated half hour. But don't confuse this with the Axum Museum near the South Stelae Park which it would seem is a must visit to really fully explain the stelae, but sadly we had no time for it. I did however buy a superb book on Axum - published by Arada Books -A Comprehensive Guide to Aksum and Yeha which I would suggest is a must for anyone who wishes to really make the most of their visit to this incredibly important historical city.

Panoramic view inside the New Cathedral Axum

Scene of Axum from south stelae Field towards 

There are many more sites to visit in Aksum but time presses on and we have to catch our flight to Lalibela - the first turbo-prop I have flown in for many years. Every day brings new and even more amazing experiences - the rock hewn churches of Lalibela we are soon to see are incredible…

Ethiopia - the road to Axum

We continue on our journey after lunch in Wukro - with a long trip in prospect as we head North towards Adigrat where we will turn West to Axum and our next overnight stop…

oxen threshing the grain

We climb even higher into the mountains. The landscape seems softer here, prettier somehow. There are many more cacti now, and farm compounds with families out in force harvesting grain, and threshing it with the help of their cattle. These animals are driven round and round in a small circle, tethered together, trampling the stalks, the women continually brushing the resulting separated grain back into the centre of the pile. There are also simple hand held ploughs drawn by oxen in the surrounding fields - a timat is the area of land that two oxen can plough in a day.

grain threshing with oxen

We drive through a patch of quite hard rain. The villagers in the small communities we pass through run for cover and seem disconsolate - although they clearly need rain - just not at harvest time! The rain season was too dry this last year which has seriously affected yields.

We approach Adigrat, standing at nearly 2500 metres. Small flocks of sheep and goats guarded by the roadside await sale and slaughter. The road ahead goes on to Eritrea - we turn left towards Axum.

We climb again - it is a dramatic hairpin road but of good quality. Many lorries on the road are carrying quarried rock presumably for more road improvements further ahead. There is much road building in process - much being undertaken by the Chinese, we are told. Some of the quarrying in the small quarries we pass looks manual and extremely hard work but the lads always have time to give us a cheery wave as we drive by. Later along the road we see donkeys with metal buckets strapped across their backs, weighed down with some of these heavy rocks. 

Debre Damo Monastery in the distance

We reach the summit, stopping soon for a stunning view - amazing terraced slopes and sheer drops. We drive for some while along the top of this valley, looking down for many miles on this amazing scenery to our right - the sun coming out from behind the clouds in time for us to fully enjoy the panorama. Many children, some very young, are walking back from school - in this sparsely populated countryside some of them clearly have quite a journey each day. The little ones wave cheerfully as we drive by. We cross a very wide river - the river bed largely dried up - but still a large group of women are finding enough pools of water in which to do their washing - before spreading it all over the nearby bushes to dry in the sun.

stunning scenery

the Adwa mountains

Just past Bizet we spy 

in the far distance Debre Damo Monastery, perched on its 3000 metre high amba, or flat- topped mountain. Founded in the sixth century by one of the monks collectively known as the Nine Saints, (who brought Christianity to Ethiopia from Syria and beyond), it is pretty impregnable. Even after a very long drive by hired vehicle or an arduous hot walk from the main road, the final hurdle is to be hauled up the last 15m high cliff via two leather ropes, one around your waist which is hauled up by the priest at the top, the other you use yourself to assist with the climb. Women are strictly not allowed. Can't say I'm sorry!

Most of the villages seem to have a circular stone wall enclosure within which there is a water pump - children pump water while women gather around no doubt to exchange the local gossip.

sun set behind Adwa mountains near Axum

We are now in the stark granite Adwa mountains - jutting into the sky like teeth - and at Inticho, with just over an hour still to drive, we stop for a panoramic view and for a much needed leg stretch.

early morning hotel view of the renowned Stelae Park

Finally after four tiring but immensely fascinating hours of drive we thankfully arrive at our hotel for the night set high on the outskirts of Axum overlooking the Stelae Field and its famous obelisks. Tomorrow we will explore this further as well as visit the reputed resting place of the Ark of the Covenant in the Cathedral Church of St Mary of Zion. 

Ethiopia pilgrimage - in search of the Ark of the Covenant

mountains and patchwork of fields

The legend of the Ark of the Covenant plays a hugely significant role in Ethiopian Christianity. 

So what is the Ark of theCovenant and why are we searching for it in Ethiopia?

It is the wooden chest which was built by the Children of Israel according to God's very precise instructions, to hold the two stone tablets brought down by Moses from Mount Sinai, inscribed with the Ten Commandments. When the Jews settled in Jerusalem, it was placed in the Temple from where it disappeared when the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Where did it go? And is it in Ethiopia? The Ethiopian Orthodox Church claim so, that it was brought to Ethiopia by Menelik I with divine assistance and that it is kept in Axum, under tight guard in a treasury near the Church of our Lady of Zion. (Menelik I, the first Solomonic Emperor of Ethiopia, (around 950BC) is traditionally believed to be the son of King Solomon of ancient Israel and Makeda, ancient Queen of Sheba).

arriving in Mekele

After our day exploring Addis Ababa we are in bed early - some of us by 8pm - ready for the 4.30am wake up call and a full day ahead tomorrow - our flight to Mekele and the eagerly anticipated rock hewn churches of North East Tigrai.

along the road to Wukro Chirkos

stunning scenery

I set my smart phone and the hotel alarm clock - not content to rely solely on the hotel's own telephone call. I wake up with a jolt convinced I have enjoyed a good night's sleep - only to see it is only 11pm - and I sleep fitfully for the rest of the night. Others in the group describe a similar experience - body clock adjusting? Malaria tablets having weird side effects? Who knows? But somehow or other we are all in the coach by 5.20 am as required and on our way to the airport. Even at this early hour there are scores of people on the streets - walking - always walking - sometimes we wonder where they are all walking to?

I have found Addis Ababa troubling. It is a pulsing throbbing sea of humanity in all its rich tapestry, suffering and comfort in close juxtaposition, medium rise office and hotel blocks jostling for space with far simpler mud homes and shanty town slums, neon lit bars and cafes and hotels, dust roads and modern highways and a brand new metro - a city of huge contrasts - and throughout all of this a kind of tacit acceptance of each other, of each others' place in the scheme of things. There are a few stray dogs and we pass the City Refuge Church on the corner of a roundabout under a flyover - seemingly a garden shelter and sanctuary in the wider hustle and bustle.

I am so happy to be heading out of the city to the tranquility and beauty of the Ethiopian countryside and all that it has to offer.

Typical pastoral scene along the road from Mekele

There is a faint pall of pollution hanging over the high rise part of the city as the plane takes off, incongruous below the cloudless pale blue sky still faintly pink tinged at 7.15am. A mist covers the outskirts of the town, the fields beyond quite green after the recently finished rainy season. As we gain height the mountainous terrain casts deep shadows across the alleys far below. A dry river bed cuts deep between curious flat-topped hills, with multi coloured patchworks of fields on their plateaus. We are soon above 37,000 feet and for a short while a thick fluffy white cloud cover obscures the earth from view.

As we approach Mekele the terrain changes, the rocks below seem pinker, with signs of terracing and two large dams.

Wukro Chirkos sandstone rock hewn church

Soon we are landed, reunited with our luggage and setting off in our coach for the fairly long journey to our first destination of the day, Wukro Chirkos, just one of the 150 odd amazing churches literally hewn out of the sandstone rocks in this Tigrai area of Ethiopia. This one is probably one of the most accessible to the tourist - others can be quite challenging to reach. Amazingly these churches were only brought to the attention of the outside world in the early 1900s, and who knows how many are still to be discovered? They are distinctly less touristy than those we will visit later in the week in Lalibela, and it is probably for this reason that they still hold an aura of spirituality and mood that can be lost when the crowds arrive. 

inside the church

drum used in the religious ceremony

Oh how we can destroy those treasures simply by wanting to go and see them for ourselves! I am thankful that our McCabe group is small and we do not dominate our surroundings.   

Ethiopia - a pilgrimage in search of the Ark of the Covenant

Addis School children 

All my inoculations are up to date - hepatitis A, diphtheria, tetanus, typhoid, polio and yellow fever, and I've been taking the malarial tablets for a week. I'm ready to leave for Ethiopia "in search of the Ark of the Covenant" along with the other 13 in this party of pilgrims organised by McCabe Pilgrimages. So it is that after a busy Sunday in our local church I find myself at the airport in the early evening for the overnight flight to Addis Ababa, the world's third highest capital city - sprawling across the southern slopes of central Ethiopia's Entoto hills and reaching an altitude of more than 2600m at its highest point.

detail of the roof in Holy Trinity Cathedral
Addis

As we start the descent into Addis Ababa after a fairly sleepless night - why do airlines turn up the lights again and serve breakfast just as you are beginning to nod off from sheer exhaustion? - the scenery below us is stunning - the rock formations are incredible, and the mountains appear to be cut into huge slices of cake with precipitous drops from huge plateaus. I fear I see a little air pollution hanging at the base of the hills in the near distance though.

Addis street view on way to hotel

We arrive into a chilly dawn, staggering bleary eyed into an airport which is much quieter than I imagined. We are very soon being whisked off to our small coach and introduced to our driver and our wonderful guide Johannes who will accompany us throughout the trip. Although the air is brisk, the sky is a clear pale blue, tinged with the various hues of a pink dawn and promising a pleasantly warm day ahead. Already the streets are very busy with people scurrying to work, if they are lucky enough to have a job to go to. It is soon apparent that unemployment is a problem here, as we see scores of young men poring over the huge notice boards which we are told list work vacancies. The contrasts everywhere are stark: modern buildings tower over mud and corrugated iron roofed huts, beggars plead on street corners as children in their neat uniforms stride purposefully to their schools, bundles of books under their arms, and there are small flocks of sheep standing around for sale awaiting their fate - these are destined for private homes where they will be slaughtered by the family, skinned and butchered for the next few meals.

City of Refuge Church sign

bustling Addis early morning

We are glad to arrive at our hotel where we have a welcome breakfast. Eggs will be cooked however you like them as you watch - I particularly like the omelettes which incorporate finely chopped onions, tomatoes, peppers and chillies - very tasty. We have time for a few hours rest before we are taken on an orientation tour of the city. The National Ethiopian Football Team is staying in the hotel - there seem to be presentations going on and much noise in the room next to mine! I am reluctantly forced to ask a maid if they could please be quieter. Once we are suitably refreshed we will visit the National Museum of Ethiopia, a must to see on everyone's visit to Addis Ababa, and the Trinity Cathedral where Emperor Haile Selassie and his wife are buried, with its wonderful stained glass windows and wall paintings.More about that in the next post...