Final Post; Axum
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Axum
We learned this morning of
a terrible disaster. The temporary
stands we had seen built for Timkat in Gondar at the King Fasilides Bath
collapsed with at least ten people dead.
See:
The stands we had in Lalibela were
concrete. Wow.
We did sleep fairly well
on the strange platform beds last night; we were exhausted. I can’t imagine how tired all the Timkat
revelers were! We went to the local
airport this morning and caught the puddle-jumper Dash 8 to Axum
(alternatively, spelled in some places Aksum).
Axum is in a different ethnic grouping—we have left the Amharic people
and are now in the home of the Tigre, who populate the very north of Ethiopia
as well as much of Eritrea and some of Sudan.
The Tigre language is also a Semitic language.
Our first stop was at the
famous Stelae Field at the cemetery of the Aksumite rulers, from between the 3rd and 4th
centuries C. E. The biggest one is 33
meters tall and weighs an estimated 520 tons!
It has 13 sections or stories.
There is an even larger
stela which apparently collapsed as it was being raised:
We toured the part of the
tombs below which have been excavated; there’s lots more to dig. Axum was the first sub-Saharan area to have a
Christian state religion, established in 333 C.E., after a transition from the
original Almouqa pagan beliefs.
It’s time for a discussion
of the Ark of the Covenant, a central artifact and core part of the Ethiopian
Christian Church. The story they tell
here, called the Kebra Negast, is that the Queen of Sheba (10th c.
BCE) traveled to Jerusalem and brought a caravan of gifts for King Solomon. When she left to go home, she was pregnant
with his child, and she gave birth to a son, Menilek. When Menilek grew up, he went to Jerusalem to
visit his father, and before his return, one of his servants stole the Ark of
the Covenant and brought it with the caravan returning to Ethiopia. Solomon had a dream that it was God’s will
that the Ark was actually supposed to go with Menilek, and so he did not pursue
the caravan to get it back. Menilek
brought the Ark to Ethiopia and it’s been here since. Or so they say. Every single Ethiopian church has a replica
of the Ark, situated in the innermost portion of the church, called the Holy of
Holies. It is brought out twice a year,
once on the name day of the saint for whom the church is named, and once on
Timkat.
The custody of the original
Ark is the responsibility of the Church of St. Mary, which currently is in this
1965 building built by Haile Selassie:
The copy of the Kebra
Negast in this church is richly decorated, and written on goat skin:
Holy names are written in
red:
Immediately adjacent to
the church proper are two buildings meant to hold the original Ark of the
Covenant. The one on the right is where
it is now; the one on the left is more modern and was built six years ago, but
the Ark has not been moved. We had no
explanation as to why.
Only one person in the
world has access to it—he is chosen to serve for life, and he lives in the
building which houses the Ark. Even the
patriarch of the church cannot visit it.
Legend has it that the keepers of the Ark all go blind eventually due to
the power of the Ark. If anyone has any
interest, there’s an article with far more information (and more well-written)
here:
Our final stop was at a
site which is the focus of controversy.
Some archeologists believe it is the location of the palace of the Queen
of Sheba. Some say not. And some say that when the site is further
excavated the Queen’s palace will be found.
We had a talk on the
quality of the walls and how they were built and what that might prove, and at
this point, with nothing agreed on, the interest level was low.
And that’s the end of this
month-long journey. What a variety of
places and experiences, from the high art and wonderful food of Florence to the
spirituality and energy of Jerusalem (shared with our granddaughter Leah), to
the fascinating cultures and history of Ethiopia and the Timkat Festival. We leave tomorrow morning for a two-day trip
home: Wednesday from Axum to Addis and Addis to Tel Aviv, and then on Thursday
from Tel Aviv to Paris, Paris to Toronto, and a rental car from Toronto to
Rochester. For all who traveled along
with us, thank you, and thanks too for the notes and comments. Our next adventure will be far more tame—on the
canals of Belgium and Holland during tulip time, followed by a small boat
visiting multiple ports on the Baltic Sea.
That will be in April and May, 2020.
Great trip! Thanks for taking us along. Safe flight home! 😘
ReplyDeleteGreat coverage. I have yet to sit to write. It was wonderful being travel companions, we very much enjoyed the extended interaction with you and with one of the best groups of travelers we have had the pleasure to travel with.
ReplyDeleteWonderful blog and photos, enjoyed it all totally. Safe travels.
ReplyDelete