There are so many legends and stories originating from this astonishing place that I know I won’t be able to keep everything straight. Axsum was the center of one of the most powerful kingdoms from the 1st to the 7th centuries AD. Axsumites converted to Christianity in the 4th century. The birth place of the Queen of Sheba who’s first son, Menelik was fathered by King Solomon. The story of the courtship (if you can call it that) is fascinating too. Menelik became the first in the Solomonic line of Emperors which ended with Haile Selassie.
The Sheba Scroll tells the story of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon in Jerusalem. He was taken by her beauty and filled with desire. He told her she could have anything in his kingdom except for water. He held a huge banquet for her, mostly made up of very salty foods. Get the picture? In her bedroom he had a servant place a pitcher of water and a goblet. If she drank from this, he could have his way with her, nasty bit of manipulation, right? Of course there were guards about to keep an eye on her and guess what happened nine months later? Menelik I!
We caught our first glimpse of the field of obelisks by walking from the center of town to the ruins of the ancient city. The stelae are giant tombstones. Some are believed to have been used in ancient forms of pagan sun worship.
The world According to Dennis:
The obelisks are over 1,700 years old. One was recently (2005) returned from Italy and re-erected in it’s original location. In 1937 Mussolini had one of the largest stelae cut into three pieces and shipped by boat back to Rome after conquering Eritrea and Ethiopia. Those damned Italians have been trying to conquer the world for thousands of years and were everywhere (sorry, Dominic?! ;-).
A note from Cindy: The obelisk was displayed near the Circus Maximus and Lynne and I went to see it in 1969. Our pensione landlady said she had never that request before. We had to go to an office of tourism to find the location.
Back to Dennis’s World: Mussolini missed the Ark of The Covenant (original tablets given to Moses by God) though as they are kept safely in the St. Mary of Zion church compound in Axsum. No one can see them and they are guarded by a priest who can never leave the church. Benito snatched a 200 ton obelisk and missed two small tablets? How did the tablets get from Jerusalem to Axsum? Short history lesson— Menelik I visited his father in Jerusalem. Solomon gave the tablets to his son to promote the spread of Judaism in Africa. This all happened around 900 BC. Today, 3000 years later, Ethiopia is 75% Coptic Christian. What would I have to do to affect civilization 3000 years from now?
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