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Concept
Obelisk of Axum
Summary
The Obelisk of Axum (ḥawelti Akhsum; Ye’Åksum ḥāwelt) is a 4th-century CE, tall phonolite stele, weighing , in the city of Axum in Ethiopia. It is ornamented with two false doors at the base and features decorations resembling windows on all sides. The obelisk ends in a semi-circular top, which used to be enclosed by metal frames.
The 'obelisk'—properly termed a stele or, in the local languages, Tigrinya: hawelt; and church Ge'ez: hawelti—is found along with many other stelae in the city of Axum in modern-day Ethiopia. The stelae were probably carved and erected during the 4th century CE by subjects of the Kingdom of Aksum, an ancient Ethiopian civilization. Erection of stelae in Axum was a very old practice. Their function is supposed to be as "markers" for underground burial chambers. The largest of the grave markers were for royal burial chambers and were decorated with multi-story false windows and false doors, while lesser nobility would have smaller, less decorated ones. While there are only a few large ones standing, there are hundreds of smaller ones in various "stelae fields". It is still possible to see primitive, roughly carved stelae near more elaborate "obelisks". The last stele erected in Axum was probably the so-called King Ezana's Stele, in the 4th century CE.
King Ezana (c. 321 – c. 360), influenced by his childhood tutor Frumentius, introduced Christianity to Axum, precluding the pagan practice of erecting burial stelae (it seems that at the feet of each obelisk, together with the grave, there was also a sacrificial altar.
Over the course of time, many of these stelae fell over due to several reasons: structural collapse (as, probably, in the case of the Great Stele, measuring 33 m), possibly immediately after their erection; earthquakes (Axum is in a seismic zone); or the military incursions of the Imam Ahmad Gragn during the Ethiopian-Adal War from 1529 to 1543. In the 19th century, of the three major "royal" stelae, only King Ezana's Stele remained erect, shown in the print "The Obelisk at Axum" of Henry Salt (1780–1827).
Official source
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