What is Ethiopia known for?
Ethiopia's first great state was the Kingdom of Aksum in the northern highlands, a trading power from about the first century CE that minted its own coins and raised tall carved stone stelae. Its king Ezana adopted Christianity in the fourth century CE.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church uses the old language Ge'ez and keeps a wider Bible than other churches. It includes 1 Enoch and Jubilees, books that were lost or kept only in pieces elsewhere. The Scottish traveler James Bruce brought copies of Ethiopic Enoch to Europe in 1773.
The church also holds that the Ark of the Covenant rests in a chapel at Aksum, guarded by one monk, a claim told in the medieval Kebra Nagast. No outsider has been allowed to see it, so the claim cannot be checked.
Where the full Book of Enoch and Jubilees survived, and where Aksum claims the Ark of the Covenant.
Mentioned on these pages
- File1 Enoch
- FileKebra Nagast
- PassageSolomon's flying wagon (Kebra Nagast, chapters on the Ark's journey)
- PersonE. A. Wallis Budge
- PersonEdward Ullendorff
- PersonHaile Selassie I
- PersonIsaac of Aksum (Yeshaq)
- PersonJames Bruce
- PersonQueen of Sheba (Makeda)
- PersonRichard Laurence
- PersonSolomon
- PlaceAkhmim
- PlaceAksum
Linked people and places
Sources
- WikipediaA free online encyclopedia written and edited by volunteers. It is a good starting point and usually lists its own sources, but anyone can change it, so we treat it as a guide to better sources, not the final word.Wikipedia, 'Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church'Reference
- WikipediaWikipedia, 'Kingdom of Aksum'Reference
- WikipediaWikipedia, 'Book of Enoch'Reference Archived copy, 2026-10-01
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