The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion

Mary of Zion stands near the great stelae of Aksum, capital of the kingdom that was Ethiopia's heart between the first and thirteenth centuries. The original church is credited to the king who made Christianity the state religion in the fourth century. It was destroyed and rebuilt more than once, and the present Old Church was raised by Fasilides in the seventeenth century. Ethiopian emperors came here to be crowned, and a coronation not ratified here could not carry the full imperial title. The modern basilica beside it was built in the 1950s and completed in 1964.

Beside the Old Church stands the Chapel of the Tablet, which the church says holds the Ark of the Covenant, brought to Ethiopia, according to its tradition, by Menelik, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. One guardian monk, appointed for life by his predecessor, lives beside the chapel and is the only person permitted to enter it; pilgrims and visitors see the chapel grounds from outside, and no visitor of any rank sees the object itself. Women are not admitted to the Old Church. The claim invites the skepticism it gets, including the scholar's statement that he examined the object as a British officer in 1941 and found a medieval construction. The site is also heavy with recent history: during the Tigray war in December 2020, hundreds of people sheltering in the complex were reportedly killed, allegations the Ethiopian government has blocked independent investigation of.

Visiting

There is no operator site. The complex sits within the UNESCO-listed ruins of Aksum. Visitors walk the churchyard and view the Chapel of the Tablet from outside; the guardian's chapel, and the Old Church for women, are not enterable. Confirm the security situation in Tigray and current access before planning a visit.

Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_Our_Lady_Mary_Zion_Axum_Ethio.jpg), CC BY-SA 3.0.