- THE TRILINGUAL TEXT INSCRIPTION OF KING EZANA
This monument is located about 300 meters north of Mai Shum reservoir on Enno Littmann Street, i.e. the road leading from the town to the Tombs of Kaleb and Gebre Meskel. The stone is inside a small house beside the road, to the left, and can be reached in a 5-minute walk from Mai Shum. Three local farmers, whose names are now written inside the house, found the stone at the beginning of the 1980s. Like the famous Ezana inscription visible in the Ezana Park, it is written in epigraphic South Arabian (western face, visible from the entrance), Greek (eastern face, behind the South Arabian Script), and unvocalised Geez (southern side). It dates back to the 4th century AD. The text is also very similar to that carved on the stone in the Ezana Park, and it celebrates the victory of King Ezana and his army against the Aksumite God of the War, Mahrem — the Greek Ares — whose cult was abandoned in favor of Christianity by king Ezana himself around 340 AD.
TOMBS OF KALEB AND GEBRE-MESKEL
The complex — about 2km north of Aksum — is one of the best existing examples of 6th century monumental Aksumite architecture. Kaleb, saint and king, also known as Ella Atsbeha, was the son of Tazena and the father of Gebre-Meskel. Kaleb lived in the 6th century AD and became one of the most famous kings of Aksum due to his successful aggressive policy in foreign lands. In the first half of the 6th century he was able to consolidate the power of Aksum in the southeast, the coastal plains, and the highlands of Yemen. We know all this from Kaleb himself, through an inscription written in Ge'ez in South Arabian characters. Kaleb prays to the Lord 'who has given me a strong kingdom through which I overcome my enemies and I press underfoot the head of my enemies' and continues mentioning the territories and peoples under Aksumite power, including the Beja and Nuba, living on the Red Sea coast and in central areas of the present—day Sudan respectively. Kaleb refers to the Christian Lord as `strong' and 'valorous' in battle', definitions that would have well suited the Aksumite God of War, Maharem, whose cult was abandoned by King Ezana about two centuries earlier. Kaleb's son, King Gebre-Meskel — whose name means Servant of the Cross — reigned around the mid-6th century. He is credited by the Tigrayan tradition with having built the famous monastery of Debre Damo, founded by Abune Aregawi.
- TOMBS OF KALEB AND GEBRE-MESKEL
These two basically similar tombs are constructed side by side beneath a shared superstructure, which comprises a central raised courtyard reached from the west by a flight of six steps 12m wide. The tombs are approached by stepped adit, fully roofed and constructed of huge, carefully dressed granite blocks of irregular shape, each individually worked to fit its desired place. The northern Tomb of Kaleb comprises a longitudinal chamber from which three rooms open eastward. The southern Tomb of Gebre-Meskel is more complex, comprising a longitudinal chamber and three rooms to the east. The central room comprises three sarcophagi. Two other rooms also extend westward on either side of the entrance stain. Look out for the carvings of crosses on the stone slabs!