Early Christian Timeline

3000 BCE – 1300 CE · 6 sites

All sites in this period

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.

ClassicalLate AntiqueEarly Medieval

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.

High Medieval

Fairy chimneys and cave churches at Goreme Open Air Museum, Cappadocia

Featured

Continent Record

Oldest Complex in Asia

Cappadocia (Goreme Open Air Museum)

3000 BCE – 1300 CE

A surreal landscape of fairy chimneys and cave churches carved into volcanic rock, housing some of the finest Byzantine frescoes in existence. Cappadocia's Goreme valley is where geology and faith converge in extraordinary form.

Bronze AgeRomanByzantine

Kaymaklı Underground City

800 BCE – 1200 CE

The second-largest underground city in Cappadocia, with eight levels carved deep into volcanic tuff, where early Christians and local populations sheltered from invaders in a labyrinth of tunnels, churches, storerooms, and ventilation shafts.

Iron AgeRomanByzantine

Laodikeia

260 BCE – 1200 CE

One of the Seven Churches of the Book of Revelation, this wealthy Roman trading city in the Lycus Valley rivaled nearby Hierapolis and Colossae. Recent excavations have revealed one of the largest ancient stadiums and a massive sacred agora.

HellenisticRomanByzantine

Ruins of the Augustus Temple sanctuary at Antioch in Pisidia

Yalvac (Antioch in Pisidia)

280 BCE – 700 CE

The site where St. Paul delivered his first recorded sermon, a major Roman colony in the Pisidian lake district with a monumental Augustus Temple and well-preserved civic center.

HellenisticRoman