Abay's fleet of vehicles is brand new, and we were impressed with the courtesy of the driver assigned to us. The following is a typical our of Ethiopia's famous Holy Route from Addis Ababa. Axum, Ethiopia's most ancient city and capital of the historic Axumite state, is the site of many remarkable monolithic stone stelae, or obelisks, the three most important being decorated to represent multi-storied buildings, complete with doors and windows. Near it stands a smaller but nevertheless most impressive 24m high obelisk - the pride of Ethiopia. A somewhat larger obelisk was taken to Rome, on the orders of the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, in 1937, but its return to Axum is expected.
Plans are also under consideration for the re-erection of the fallen obelisk.
Axum, in its glory days, was a great commercial centre, issuing its own currency and trading with Egypt, Arabia, Persia, India and even Ceylon. The settlement was also the site of Ethiopia's oldest church, which dated back to the coming of Christianity as the state religion, early in the 4th Century. The original building has long since disappeared but a structure erected on its site by Emperor Fasiladas in the early 17th Century is till there. A nearby outhouse is the reputed repository of the biblical Ark of the Covenant. This historic relic cannot be seen but visitors there can see and photograph a number of the remarkable crowns that belonged to several notable Ethiopian monarchs of the past.