Aksum

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Aksum

Aksum or Axum , town (1994 pop. 27,148), Tigray region, N Ethiopia. Aksum was the capital of an empire (c.1st-8th cent. AD) that controlled much of what is now N Ethiopia. In the 4th cent. the emperor Ezana was converted to Christianity, and today Aksum is a major center of Ethiopian Christianity. The Ark of the Covenant is said to have been brought there from Jerusalem in Solomon's time and placed in the church of St. Mary of Zion, where Ethiopia's emperors were later crowned. The town is also noted for its gigantic carved pre-Christian obelisks, and there is an extensive underground royal necropolis.

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Aksum

A Dictionary of World History | 2000 | Â© A Dictionary of World History 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Aksum (or Axum) A town in the province of Tigré in northern Ethiopia. It was a religious centre and the capital of a powerful kingdom during the 1st–6th centuries AD. According to ancient Aksumite tradition their kings were descended from Menelik (legendary son of Solomon and Sheba) who brought to the country the Ark of the Covenant containing the original Tablets of the Law given to Moses.

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