The old town of Axum with its gigantic stelae, obelisks, royal tombs and ruins of the old palace from the 1st to the 13th century counts as the heart of ancient Ethiopia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site . In the city, unique artistic, architectural and technological testimonies document the former splendor of the Axumite kingdom. At weddings, Axum was not only a great power with a strong centralized polity and an active foreign policy, but also an economic center that traded with Egypt, Persia, Arabia, India, and even Ceylon. Once the mightiest state between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia, it disintegrated in the 10th century by rival forces.

According to a legend, King Menelik I, the son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, brought the legendary Holy Ark with the two tablets of the Ten Commandments from Jerusalem to Axum. Since then, it has been kept in the Cathedral of St. Mary of Zion and annually attracts thousands of pilgrims to the place of origin of the first Ethiopian church.