This morning we flew from Lalibela to Axum in Northern Tigray.  Summer has arrived, so the temperatures were a bit warmer than our time in Addis and Lalibela.  The economy in this region is very agrarian and it was obvious flying in that the all the fields had been freshly cultivated. Some regions of Tigray have suffered mightily from a drought over the last two years, creating a significant food shortage for the farmers.  The great news is that over the last 2-3 months this area has been blessed by some significant rains.  So in the last weeks, farmers have been busy preparing their land and planting.  With the recent rains, they are expecting their crop production to return to normal this year to ease the food shortage in the region.

 

Just like Lalibela, Axum is the home of  significant archeological and religious sites. Before heading to the field to visit communities and water projects tomorrow, we take the afternoon to visit the most significant in the area.

 

The Altar area at St. Mary’s Church

Our first stop is the beautiful church built in 1965 by Haile Selassie in honor of Mary, mother of Jesus.  The Church of St. Mary of Zion is one of the largest Ethiopian Orthodox churches, capable of worshiping 3,000 inside and many more surrounding the church on the outside. On entering, we must first remove our shoes. It is not like a typical church that we know. It has a few wooden benches and a large altar. Hundreds of vivid paintings decorate all the walls depicting historical Christian events.

 

The Book of St. Mary

In addition St. Mary’s of Zion is the home of the Book of St. Mary, known to be more than 500 years old with its art and manuscript written on lamb skin. The priests in attendance at the Church showed us several pages in the book, with most pages illustrated with beautiful hand paintings like the one shown above.

 

Chapel of the Ark of the Covenant

Adjacent to St. Mary’s is the Chapel of the Ark of the Covenant, which houses the Ark.  Tradition has it that the son of Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, Menelik I, grew up in Ethiopia and traveled to Jerusalem and brought the Ark back to Ethiopia. The Ark plays an important role in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, so much so that every Church has a replica of the Ark in its Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary of the Church. The Chapel is protected by the Guardian Monk, who is elected to serve for life.  He is not allowed to leave the Chapel area and no one else is allowed to enter.  We were fortunate to briefly see the Guardian on the edge of the Chapel property, as he was counseling a young mother through the border fence. Afterward we toured a small museum that has ancient artifacts including the crowns dating back to 400 A.D. They are made of gold and silver and most of them are huge!

 

Ruins of Queen of Sheba Palace

As mentioned before, the Queen of Sheba plays an important role in the traditions of the Ark.  She ruled large amounts of East Africa, including Ethiopia and Yemen.  Near the west side of Axum, they are what archeologists believe to be the ruins of her palace in Ethiopia.

 

Street Shop

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to buy a new piece of luggage… a zipper was broken on the flight in. The photo above shows one of the typical shops along the streets in Axum that sells luggage… and skinny jeans for men! In the cities of Ethiopia, we see traditional attire as well as skinny jeans side by side.

 

Tomorrow it is off to visit water projects built by Water to Thrive in 2008!

 

– Joyce and Dick Moeller

 

This morning we flew from Lalibela to Axum in Northern Tigray.  Summer has arrived, so the temperatures were a bit warmer than our time in Addis and Lalibela.  The economy in this region is very agrarian and it was obvious flying in that the all the fields had been freshly cultivated. Some regions of Tigray have suffered mightily from a drought over the last two years, creating a significant food shortage for the farmers.  The great news is that over the last 2-3 months this area has been blessed by some significant rains.  So in the last weeks, farmers have been busy preparing their land and planting.  With the recent rains, they are expecting their crop production to return to normal this year to ease the food shortage in the region.

 

Just like Lalibela, Axum is the home of  significant archeological and religious sites. Before heading to the field to visit communities and water projects tomorrow, we take the afternoon to visit the most significant in the area.

 

The Altar area at St. Mary’s Church

Our first stop is the beautiful church built in 1965 by Haile Selassie in honor of Mary, mother of Jesus.  The Church of St. Mary of Zion is one of the largest Ethiopian Orthodox churches, capable of worshiping 3,000 inside and many more surrounding the church on the outside. On entering, we must first remove our shoes. It is not like a typical church that we know. It has a few wooden benches and a large altar. Hundreds of vivid paintings decorate all the walls depicting historical Christian events.

 

The Book of St. Mary

In addition St. Mary’s of Zion is the home of the Book of St. Mary, known to be more than 500 years old with its art and manuscript written on lamb skin. The priests in attendance at the Church showed us several pages in the book, with most pages illustrated with beautiful hand paintings like the one shown above.

 

Chapel of the Ark of the Covenant

Adjacent to St. Mary’s is the Chapel of the Ark of the Covenant, which houses the Ark.  Tradition has it that the son of Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, Menelik I, grew up in Ethiopia and traveled to Jerusalem and brought the Ark back to Ethiopia. The Ark plays an important role in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, so much so that every Church has a replica of the Ark in its Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary of the Church. The Chapel is protected by the Guardian Monk, who is elected to serve for life.  He is not allowed to leave the Chapel area and no one else is allowed to enter.  We were fortunate to briefly see the Guardian on the edge of the Chapel property, as he was counseling a young mother through the border fence. Afterward we toured a small museum that has ancient artifacts including the crowns dating back to 400 A.D. They are made of gold and silver and most of them are huge!

 

Ruins of Queen of Sheba Palace

As mentioned before, the Queen of Sheba plays an important role in the traditions of the Ark.  She ruled large amounts of East Africa, including Ethiopia and Yemen.  Near the west side of Axum, they are what archeologists believe to be the ruins of her palace in Ethiopia.

 

Street Shop

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to buy a new piece of luggage… a zipper was broken on the flight in. The photo above shows one of the typical shops along the streets in Axum that sells luggage… and skinny jeans for men! In the cities of Ethiopia, we see traditional attire as well as skinny jeans side by side.

 

Tomorrow it is off to visit water projects built by Water to Thrive in 2008!

 

– Joyce and Dick Moeller