Axum

Ethiopia’s most ancient city and former the capital of the great Aksumite kingdom lies in the northern part of the country. The kingdom was the only internationally recognized independent African monarchy of important power status in its age. Around the second and first century BCE, the Aksumite Kingdom rose to power on the northern part of the country in Tigray regional state with its capital at Aksum and grew into a major power and trading route along the Red sea controlling the caravan routes from the hinterland of Africa.  
The Aksumite state bordered one of the ancient world’s thriving hubs of commerce, the red sea, and through its port of Adulis, represented a crucial connecting-point between Africa, Europe and  Asia for almost a couple of hundred years and was one of the most powerful empires in the world. The empire’s link with other countries, whether through military campaigns, trading enterprise, or cultural and ideological exchange, made Aksum part of the international community of the time.
As trade was the major source of income, the Aksumite kings produced their own coinage when almost no one else in the world was rich enough to afford it or sophisticated enough to require it. Remarkable for several features, especially the inlay of Gold on silver and bronze coins made the kingdom unique for Africa. The major items of trade were precious items like obsidian, ivory, rhino-horn, Incense, emeralds and gold from the west of Aksum. In addition to this civet, spices, animal skins, and hides seem also to have been among Aksum’s exports.
Even after the conversion of the state religion into Christianity on the 4th century, Aksum still remained as a special place where the physical world seems to meet the most sacred spiritual life, highly devoted religious spot connected with God, saints and martyrs or places where miracles or visions were reported and consecrated to worship God with indigenous faith.
The church St Mary of Zion in Aksum is not just a site of Christian worship. It is also a site for private contemplation, group meditation or conflict resolution, public gatherings and royal judgments. Most important of all other events that had taken place here was the coronation of the several Ethiopian kings.
Ethiopians still believe the real Ark of the Covenant that was given by God to Moses on mount Seni lies and still preserved up to this day at the Church of our lady saint Mary of Zion in a sacred chapel under close guard of a priest. This makes Aksum the major holiest place on the land of Ethiopia.
This ancient town is filled with different remains of the city’s past glory, ruins of palaces, underground tombs and the mysterious stone curved still standing monolithic steles(obelisks) weighing more than 500 tons and old contemporary churches, with many indigenous arts and crafts demonstrating high technical skills of this kingdom until this days.
It is worth it to take a walk in the town to experience the locals’ life, attend the local coffee ceremony and breathe the fresh air of this Holy town.