The inside of the church is just as magnificent as the outside. The strange thing about visiting the tombs is that they are under the floor of the church. There is an eerie feeling in this enclosed and airless place. Paintings are hung above the tombs to remember the dead, and there is a large photograph of Menelik. The tombs are ornately carved marble, worthy of the Monarchs they entomb.
Additional shrines are also in place.
There is one for Abuna Matthias, a famous Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, who died in 1926. As well, there is a mausoleum for the beloved daughter of Haile Selassie, who died at the tender age of 22 after graduating from nursing. Her photo, which is said to have been taken after her death, shows her looking remarkably lifelike in her nurses uniform. At the side there is a large glass case, containing amongst other things a small coffin that contains the bones of Haile Selassie. The bones were found only after the overthrow of the Derg government in 1991, which in turn had overthrown and killed Haile Selassie.