ETHIOPIA (5): Axum

[Xander202]

My final stop on my Ethiopia trip took me to the far north to Axum (or Aksum).

My previous threads took me to the South
The Omo Valley (1) and (2)
Lalibela

Axum is an incredible place, very different from the other parts of Ethiopia that I saw. Like Lalibela, it is part of the classic historical circuit of the Christian north of the country. However, it is in the Tigray region, which is culturally very distinct. They speak their own language, and have a lot in common culturally with neighbouring Eritrea (it really is very close to the border).

The city was once the centre of the Axumite empire, which stretched across the Red Sea encompassing parts of what is now Yemen. Axum is also a religiously significant holy city. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church claims that the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum houses the Biblical Ark of the Covenant, in which lie the Tablets of Law upon which the Ten Commandments are inscribed.

All in all, the atmosphere of Axum was very interesting. It certainly felt as if you are getting close to the Arabic world (compared with the far south of Ethiopia which felt very stereotypically African). The surrounding landscape is stunning, and again, very different from even Lalibella which is not so far as the crow flies.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the final instalment of my Ethiopia travels.


























































































































































IMG_4156157157 by Alexander Macfarlane, on Flickr

[photoLith]

Man, they sure are crazy about their christianity there. I would love to visit someday. You should make a book on etheopia or something for real.

[Bedhead]

Wonderful thread - a real education.

[BnaBreaker]

Amazing thread. Gorgeous people.

Don't they claim that the Ark of the Covenant is being kept in that church?

[Danny]

Formidable pictures, Xander202! Thanks for sharing, once more, your pics of that unknown but nice country called Ethiopia.

Axum is amazing too. Your people, street markets and landscapes photos are outstanding. Incredible work!

Congrats and greetings from Madrid, Spain.

[ColDayMan]

Incredible.

[mrnyc]

this is very interesting. ive heard of a piece of the ark in a church in axum on some cable tv show. they wouldnt let anyone in to see. what a strangely beautiful, stark part of the world.

[Rusty van Reddick]

At the risk of sounding patronizing, I think these people are beautiful.

Photolith, a lot of the people you see are Muslim.

[Xander202]

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

Photolith, a lot of the people you see are Muslim.

Actually that's not true. Pretty much everyone in these photos are Christian. The white gowns that look somewhat like hijabs are in fact Croatian women. I was fortunate to witness the Timkat (the epiphany according to the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian church) celebrations. The gowns are part of their celebratory attire.

In addition, a lot of the hats the men wear look Muslim but are actually traditional Tigrayan dress. They are also in fact Christians.

[mthq]

what fantastic photos! face pics are always the best.

I'm surprised to see the Lady of Guadalupe make a cameo on those Christian murals. I thought that was just a latin american thing..

[Tony]

Facinating! Excellent photos too. Thanks for sharing.

[Surrealplaces]

Excellent photo thread!

[Xander202]

Thanks for the comments everyone

[Urbanguy]

Beautiful people, landscapes and just an all around fascinating place. Thanks for sharing these.

[gothamite]

exceptional and stunning! thanks

[PremierAtlanta]

Ameseginalehu! Such an excellent photo spread. Bravo! I really need to get back to Gonder soon.

[mSeattle]

This is a very nice thread. Beautiful everything. I'm thirsty now.

[ChiTownCity]

So where exactly do all of those people live? It looks like there's a lot of people but barely any buildings... just a lot of desert landscape.

[Xander202]

Originally Posted by ChiTownCity

So where exactly do all of those people live? It looks like there's a lot of people but barely any buildings... just a lot of desert landscape.

There is town.... I didn't take many pictures of buildings as they were fairly unremarkable, typical poor country concrete boxes. There are also a few streets with fairly colourful houses, think there are a few pictures amongst this thread.

[mousquet]

Yea, these Ethiopian threads are something.

Originally Posted by Xander202

Nice looking kids. Let him grow up then the one to the left will make some girls die from his bad almond eyes. At least, I know that's the way it'd be where I am, cause sex desires are even stronger than racism over here.
Hey, what? That's just life, definitely for the better after all.

Originally Posted by Xander202

I would steal the sort of dark grey-blue suit of the guy standing in the middle of the pic.

Originally Posted by Xander202

This appears to be a Peugeot. Rare nowadays, collectible.

Originally Posted by Xander202

There is town.... I didn't take many pictures of buildings as they were fairly unremarkable, typical poor country concrete boxes.

I won't go too far in the off-topic but surprisingly, today some concrete looks almost, if not really neat. But then it might requires some kind of (probably a little costly) custom-made treatments to look interesting. Like this:



That's nothing cheaper than concrete. Though I doubt it's been really cheap to get this result, they needed a couple of sculptors working for some business specializing in that kind of materials.

Since neighboring Kenya's being in the bad news right now, they should imitate it somehow. It'd be good to see them finally a little developing.