Aksumite Timeline

100 BCE – 1270 CE · 3 sites

All sites in this period

Country Record

Earliest Known Site in Ethiopia

Lalibela

1180 CE – 1270 CE

A complex of 11 monolithic rock-hewn churches carved in the 12th–13th centuries, representing the pinnacle of Ethiopian medieval architecture and Christian devotion.

322

High Medieval

Towering granite stelae (obelisks) at the Northern Stelae Field of Axum, Ethiopia

Country Record

Longest Recorded History in Ethiopia

Axum

100 BCE – 940 CE

The capital of one of antiquity's great empires — a city of towering granite obelisks, royal tombs, and palaces rising in the highlands of northern Ethiopia. At the height of Aksumite power from the 1st to 7th centuries CE, Axum controlled trade routes linking the Mediterranean, Arabia, and sub-Saharan Africa, minted its own gold coins, and became one of the first states in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion.

311

ClassicalLate AntiqueEarly Medieval

The standing 23-metre Obelisk of Aksum in Tigray, Ethiopia

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Country Record

Known by the Most Names in Ethiopia

Aksum

100 CE – 940 CE

Capital of the Aksumite Empire (c. 100–940 CE), one of the great powers of late antiquity — the only African state to defeat Persia in battle, famed for its towering carved stone obelisks and claimed home of the Ark of the Covenant.

Late AntiqueEarly Medieval