The
most famous monuments of Aksum are its marvelous stelae. How these stelae were
made and erected is still open to question. People come from all over the world
to visit these astonishing monuments.
Past
and present research suggest there are 1314 standing sculp tured stelae in Aksum and its surrounding
areas.
Five
of the famous are:
The Covenant Stelae. It weighs 150 tones and is
almost 21 meters in height. It was erected at the end of 400 BC according to
Kibrenegest but Dr.phillipson argues that it was dated not before the end of 3rd
century A.D
The ‘Giant Fallen Stelae’. It has a total length of 33
meters and is estimated to have been 520 tones in weight. It lies broken on the
ground in five major parts.
The
underground chamber in the ‘Royal Cemetery’, now called the Nefas mawcha (Temple of Winds). Its
capstone is some 11x6.5 by 1 to 1.5 meters, and weighs about 360 tones.
The cemetery of Romhay (‘Tomb of the False door’),
is discovered during the excavations of 1974 and its door is a single
sculptured stone portal.
East
of the Romhay Cemetery is an underground road leading to the four compass
directions, North, South, East and West.
A
legend told for many years around Aksum
describes there are rooms and a place beneath the fallen stela. During the 1993
excavations, a tomb having 10 rooms and a central corridor was uncovered, the
latter with a length of 16m, a width of 2m and a height of 2m. It is located
west of the ‘Giant Fallen Stelae’ and a similar entrance found east of the
stelae suggests a parallel building might be there.
The entrance to the right of the standing stelae is
called yeshekla Kested emena (‘rainbow like arched door of bricks’). A descent
of 22 steps leads to a royal tomb just east of the ‘Covenant Stele’, called the ‘Tomb of the Brick Arches’. Many relics were found in this
tomb, amongst which the most impressive are two large ivory plaques decorated
with wine leaves. The ivory found east of the ‘Covenant stelae’ is called Berik Ark
of the Royal Grave. The stelae Field is assumed to be the central mystery of Aksum.
North of the Stelae Field, near the Enda Yesus
(Jesus) Church, there are four main types of stelae decorated with unique
architecture. This area is the second Stelae Field, and stretches from the Church of Enda Yesus as far as Geza Agumay.
The
distribution of the stela at Aksum
and its surrounding areas can be summed up as follows:
Name
of Historical Site No
of stelae
Queeen of Sheba (Dengur) 580
Nefas Mewcha 106
Enda Yesus 38
Gele Emni 13
Geza Agumay 10
Abuna Gurum 15
Enda Tsion 31
Kebele 04 31
Kebele 07 20
Ezana Menafesha 11
Hawlti Moles 60
Yeha 5
Hinzat 65
Biete Giorgis 316
Gediba Maryam 6
Chama Emni 7
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