Historical route: Axum 3

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The most intriguing claim of the Ethiopian Orthodox church is the possesion of the Ark of the Covenant, mentioned both in the Bible and the Quoran and said to contain the original stone tablets of Moses.

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The Ark is guarded in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, in Axum but is not free for anyone except the most holy men of the Ethiopian church to see. In fact, if you see it and you are not a holy man, you DIE! We went to the church but was not allowed in. I tried to take a photo of the church, but then the holy "Guardian of the Ark" appeared and waved his finger at me...

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We did go to the museum though, and we did see a stone obelisk from the 4th centur written in three prehistoric languages that mention the Ark being brought to Ethiopia by emperor Menelik 1st who was the son of King Salomon and Queen Sheba. Quite a claim.

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After our "brush with death" of almost seeing the Ark of the Covenant, we took of to Lalibela and the rock hewn churches.

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Historical route: Axum 2

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Axum also has all these tombs. Some are below or in the vecinity of the obelisks, but others lies scattered around the countryside but are equally impressive.

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The one on the pic is called "the tomb of the false door". The Axumites made their tombs (as well as the obelisks) in the form of houses where the spirits could dwell. Underground are different rooms for different purposes, all carved out of enormous granite blocks. To me, the most intriguing part of all this is the symbolism hidden in these tombs. In this particular tomb we found carvings of different crosses on the walls. First, it tells us they wetre christian, but secondly, these crosses have inspired orders and religious groupings all around the world. We found both david's star and cross that the templars later used as their symbol. What does this imply? Did they come here? Their original name was actually "Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon", and the Temple of Solomon is in Ethiopia...

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I just love this stuff. It's like being part of the "Name of the Rose" or anyone of the Dan Brown novels!

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But wait - it gets even better!

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Historical route: Axum

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After Gondar, we continued by domestic flight to Axum. None of these flights are longer than 50 minutes, so its really nu fuss apart from getting up early in the morning.

Axum is equally amazing but gives you another atmosphere. This is more ancient. Enormous obelisks and underground tombs that make you wonder how man managed to construct things like this out of hard granite without machines or other modern equipment. It's like Egypt. This place, just like the others we visited are all UNESCO world heritage sites.

AXUM was the capital of the old Abyssinia and ruled the place from 400 BC - 1000 AD! Quite an achievement. They had trading routes with Southern Europe, Alexandria, Byzantium and others during the roman era. Eventually they declined due to religious squabbles and the arabs cutting their trade routes.

Axum of today has a lot to offer for the historically interested tourist. The main attraction is the enormous Obelisks that the old rulers raised. The fallen one on the picture is supposed to be the biggest and heaviest man made structure made from one piece of stone...ever! It's weighing just 520 tonnes and is 33 meters high!

But Axum is not only stones and obelisks...

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Historical route of Ethiopia: Gondar

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Hi,

My mother was here for two weeks recently, and when you have visits, it is a great opportunity to go sightseeing in the country you live. You never get around to it otherwise.

So, after a couple of days in Addis, we went on the so called "historical route" to visit some of the world class wonders that northern Ethiopia offers for tourists. Ethiopia is not a place (obviously!) for beaches and relaxing holidays, but it is a great place for more "academic" and informed tourism. Ethiopia is the cradle of christianity and has played a crucial part in past-time historical events. Just to get your interest up i can throw out a couple of hints: Queen Sheba. King Salomon. The lost Ark of the Covenant. Moses stone tablets. Haile Selassie. Ras Tafari. Byzantine Empire. The list goes on.

We chose to go with domestic flights covering three historical sites in four days. We went first to Gondar (picture), then continued to Axum and finally to Lalibella before heading back to Addis. I will write a piece on each place.

GONDAR is the city of kings of old. In the 16hundreds the Solomic kings of Ethiopia went from keeping a nomadic lifestyle with no fixed capital (for security reasons) to establish themselves more permanently by lake Tana in northern Ethiopia and founded Gondar. Over time, each new king or queen build him/herself a new castle on the same grounds as the older one. Eventually the "royal enclosure" came to contain 7 castles and 3 churches, plus stables, bathes, sauna and a lot of other amazing constructions. To me, the closest comparison to this area is the Alhambra fortress in Granada, Spain.

This place would have been intact until today had it not been for the italians, who during the occupation wanted to drive out the Ethiopian forces that had established themselves there and fire-bombed the place for the purpose! Great job! So, now they are ruins. Although many of the palaces are mainly intact and you can enter them and have a look inside. Others are ruined.

When we arrived in Gondar, which is just as high up as Addis above sealevel (2300 something meters), the guide took us to Goha hotel which is situated at the very peak of one of the hills surrounding the castle area. It was an amazing view, and the terrace of the hotel is like taken from the White City of Gondor in the Lord of the Rings. And then it struck us: Of course a lot of the inspiration for Tolkien came from these historical places! All the myths surrounding this area. Gondor/Gondar. The castles. The layout. The city of Kings, Minas Tirith! (later we continued to Lalibella, and the old historical name of Lalibela is Roha, and the people are called Rohan!)

Anyway, after the tour of the castles we also checked out the King Fasilides baths, which is still used to celebrate Ethiopian Timkat, or the Epiphany for the Ethiopian Orthodox church. Another amazing site which is filled up with water every year for massive baptism ceremonies.

Check out the link in this post for more info!

Axum next...

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