Aksum

We have now travelled up to Aksum, which is in the far north of Ethiopia, near the border with Eritrea.

Aksum has a long and proud history. The Ark of the Covenant, containing the Ten Commandments, is supposed to be kept in a small church here. Only a specially appointed guardian is allowed to enter.

The Queen of Sheba lived here and made a visit to King Solomon. Their son, Menelik, brought the Ark to Ethiopia when he was 22 years old.

One of the things we came here to see is this field of Stelae, granite obelisks each carved from a single piece of granite. They date from around 380AD and the largest was 33m high. The second largest was taken to Rome by the invading Italians in the 1930s and finally repatriated in 2007.