STELLAR FIELD

They are symbolic monuments of the Aksum kingdom, which flourished from the ^1st to the ^8th century AD. A small part of the field has been uncovered by archaeologists, but the majority is still buried under the earth! You'll see a whole field of stelae that are still intact and have yet to reveal any of their mysteries. These finds don't tell us much about the past either, as information about this ancient pagan civilization is scarce. It is accepted that these funerary monuments symbolize nine-storey Axumite houses, with their window decorations and lockable doors framed by the "monkey head" motifs typical of this architecture and found in many civil and religious buildings dating from this period. The crescent-shaped tops (pagan Arabian symbol?) of the buildings were certainly decorated with metal, as evidenced by the visible traces of oxidation. Visible stelae date from the ^3rd and ^4th centuries AD. The Ezena Stone, stone tablets with texts in three languages - Greek, Sabaean and Guez - is located nearby.

The archaeological museum. Open daily from 8am to 12pm and from 2pm to 6pm. A visit to the museum is a good introduction to the city's sites. On display are stones bearing Sabaean and Greek inscriptions, Axumite coins and a fine collection of pottery and jewelry unearthed during the excavations. Models (including Ta'akha Palace) and drawings depict the ingenuity and wealth of the inhabitants of this mysterious kingdom. Don't miss the replica of a typical Aksum house, located right next to the museum. Small store selling local crafts.

The first obelisk, 33 m high, is lying on its side and broken into several pieces. Sculpted on all four sides, the edifice could have collapsed during its erection for lack of a pit deep enough to support its 400 tonnes. Popular tradition sees this as the result of looting by Queen Gudit, who was eager to recover the gold decorations that adorned the top of the monuments. Others see the collapse as a divine sign, precipitating the city's conversion to Christianity.

A second obelisk, 28 m high, was located in a nearby pit, of which only its location remains, having been stolen during the Italian occupation in 1937. At the time, transporting the 200-tonne monolith was an epic undertaking, forcing the Italians to cut the block into five pieces, one of which was forgotten on site, before the stele was reconstituted for erection in a Roman square. The return of this symbol to its country of origin was the subject of a veritable soap opera. Today, the stele has returned to its original location.

A third obelisk in what may have been an alignment (the significance of which has not been established) stands 24 m high. Known as the "Ezena Stele", the monument has nine storeys and a stepped base with vine-leaf carvings and small excavations.

The mausoleum, whose entrance is marked by a colossal granite portico, is now open to visitors, after several years of excavation and rehabilitation work.

Tomb of the brick arches. Dating back to the ^4th century and named after the material that makes up its barrel vault and the arches that separate the four burial chambers carved into the rock, this tomb seems to have escaped looting and has yielded some real archaeological treasures: pottery, fragments of crockery, carved ivories, bronze panels...

King Bazen's tomb. The structure of this unbuilt tomb, dug into the rock, dates it from a much earlier period than the others, undoubtedly from the very time of Christ's birth.

In the walls of the staircase leading to the three main niches, which would have housed the remains of the king, his wife and children, other smaller excavations are the subject of speculation. According to legend, these would have housed the bodies of several warriors, buried at the same time as their sovereign... Slightly above this burial site, an excavated pit reveals the presence of several other funerary niches, some of which appear to have been only partially excavated.

King Remhai's tomb. At the north-western end of the field. Known as the "tomb of the false door", in reference to the motif also found on the stelae. These ^4th- or^5th-century burial chambers, accessible via a stairway, were cleared in 1974 from the tumulus that concealed them. Despite successive looting, which suggests that they housed some real treasures, plant samples have been discovered here attesting to the cultivation of tef and false banana, which are still the staples of the local diet today. The curiosities of the main burial chamber lie in its single-block stone sarcophagus, whose resonance suggests that it is hollow, and in the single slab that forms the ceiling of the building.