Axum and Surroundings

The Axumite kingdom was one of the great civilizations of the ancient world and the birth of the Ethiopian civilization, has left behind the mystery of the great monolithic Stelae found at Axum.

Axum, Ethiopia’s most ancient city and the capital of the historic Axumite kingdom, is the site of many remarkable stone obelisks. It is still a mystery that how they erect them and some of them stay erected for more than 2500 years.

The largest obelisk, which was 33 meters long and weighed 500 tons, is the biggest piece of stone ever cut by humanity anywhere in the world but today it lies broken on the ground. Near it stands a smaller but nevertheless most impressive 24-metre-high obelisk – the pride of Ethiopia. A somewhat larger obelisk was taken to Rome, on the orders of the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, in 1937, but it’s now returned to Ethiopia. Plans are also under consideration for the re-erection of the fallen obelisk.

Each of these gates thus played a different role in the economy of the city and of neighboring lands. The northern gate, for example, was known as the Assum Bari, because it was used by traders importing assu, or pepper and salt, from the Gulf of Aden coast of Africa; while the eastern gate was called the Argob Bari because it served merchants handling the lucrative trade from Argobba, one of Ethiopias inland regions.

The gates of Harar in olden days were strongly guarded, and were strictly closed at night – for no one was allowed to enter or leave the city during the long hours of darkness. Strangers wishing to enter Harar in daytime had first to deposit their spears, guns and other arms with the cities guards, who would look after them scrupulously, and return them when their owners were ready to leave. The walls had, however, a number of holes placed to allow the drainage of water and sewage and to enable hyenas, who constituted the principal garbage collectors, to enter the settlement at night and leave it before the break of dawn.