MegalithFringe site
Axum
Also known asAksum · Axum town · Mint of Axum
Datedc. 1–900 CE
Photo Sailko · CC BY 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
What the sources say
Axum is an other / unclassified in Ethiopia. It is also recorded as Aksum, Axum town, Mint of Axum. Its entries are Wikidata item Q5832; the position in the catalogue is 14.1250° N, 38.7215° E.
Built from structured records, not from an articleSources and licences
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
The full article
About Axum
This kind of monument hereSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
The Atlas uses the heading "other" for stone monuments that fit none of its other types, and the same article serves for underground chambers that have no regional article. The records are varied. Many are ziggurats, Egyptian temples and pyramids, and Maya and Andean sites, which are treated in their own articles. What remains is a scatter of single sites in many countries whose descriptions do not allow a closer classification. Further down this page, About this kind of monument gives the whole of “Other prehistoric stone monuments”.
DatingSources for this section
- Fringe claim sourceCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Fringe claim sourceCC BY-SA 4.0
Dated 1 CE to 900 CE (a published source statement). This range belongs to this site itself, not to its type in general. The record notes: Aksum was described as a metropolis by the 1st century AD, and was largely abandoned by the end of the 9th century. (Source: the Wikipedia article “Axum”.)
Published age claims for this site include 1 CE to 900 CE (published source). The mainstream range is 1 CE to 900 CE.
Landscape and neighbours
Counting outward from Axum, there are 2 catalogued sites within 1 km, 3 within 5 km and 3 within 10 km, and none of them is of the same kind. In Ethiopia, 1 of the 3 catalogued sites are classed as other / unclassified.
The closest catalogued sites are King Ezana's Stele (0.8 km north, stele); Obelisk of Axum (0.8 km north, stele); Ezana Stone (1.4 km north, stele); Hawulti Obelisk (Metera) (97.3 km north-east, stele). The catalogue is assembled from open records and is not complete, so unrecorded monuments may lie closer.
Records and protectionSources for this section
Sources for this section
The open records used here carry no heritage designation for the site, which says nothing either way about its legal status. The open records for it are Wikidata (Q5832), where corrections and further identifiers can be added. Access varies from open common land to private fields; check local access rules, ask where needed, and take care not to damage the monument.
How this page was madeSources for this section
Sources for this section
This page was built automatically from Wikidata (CC0) and the regional article “Other prehistoric stone monuments”, written for the Atlas from the Wikipedia articles it cites (CC BY-SA 4.0), plus distances and counts computed from the catalogue coordinates. It contains no AI-written text.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Other prehistoric stone monuments
The Atlas uses the heading "other" for stone monuments that fit none of its other types, and the same article serves for underground chambers that have no regional article. The records are varied. Many are ziggurats, Egyptian temples and pyramids, and Maya and Andean sites, which are treated in their own articles. What remains is a scatter of single sites in many countries whose descriptions do not allow a closer classification.
Several of these are underground. A hypogeum is literally an "underground" temple or tomb, often with niches for cremated remains or loculi for buried remains. An early example is found at the Minoan Bronze Age site of Knossos on Crete, a beehive-shaped vault cut into soft rock. The Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni in Paola, Malta, is the oldest example of a prehistoric hypogeum, with its earliest phase dated to 3600 to 3300 BCE. It is a complex of underground chambers, halls and passages covering about 500 square metres on three levels, partly carved to imitate temple architecture and containing extensive prehistoric art.
A rock-cut tomb is cut into an existing rock formation, usually a cliff or sloping rock face, and was a common burial form for the wealthy in several parts of the world. Famous clusters are in Egypt, Iran, Lycia in Turkey, Petra in Jordan and Sicily. Phrygian rock-cut tombs such as the Midas monument date to about 700 BCE, and Etruscan ones to about 500 BCE.
The general rule for these records is that the type tells you how a monument was made, not who made it or when. Dating is taken from the source for each site where a source gives one, and otherwise left as a broad range.
When visiting, read the site's own description first, since the Atlas can offer only a general frame.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Megalith, Wikipedia: Hypogeum, Wikipedia: Rock-cut tomb, Wikipedia: Stele · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photographs
8 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
1–900 CEHow this date was established: Stated by the sourceAksum was described as a metropolis by the 1st century AD, and was largely abandoned by the end of the 9th century.Source for this date
Where it stands
Ethiopia
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 14°07′30″ N, 38°43′17″ EFor a GPS or map app: 14.12500, 38.72152
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q5832wikidata.org
- 02Fringe claim sourceen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Aksum, palazzo di dungur detto della regina di saba, 10 scalinata.jpgSailkoCC BY 3.0
- Aksum, Tigray.jpgRod WaddingtonCC BY-SA 2.0
- Stelae in Main Stelae Field - Axum (Aksum) - Ethiopia - 02 (8702223458).jpgAdam Jones from Kelowna, BC, CanadaCC BY-SA 2.0
- Aksum, iscrizione di re ezana, in greco, sabeo e ge'ez, 330-350 dc ca. 10.jpgSailkoCC BY 3.0
- Maryam Sion in Axum Nebenbau mit der Bundeslade 2010.jpgJensiS65CC BY-SA 3.0
- Stelenpark in Axum 2010.JPGJensiS65CC BY-SA 3.0
- Axumite Palace (2827701317).jpgA. Davey from Where I Live Now: Pacific NorthwestCC BY 2.0
- Stelae Field in Axum, Ethiopia (2830293765).jpgA. Davey from Where I Live Now: Pacific NorthwestCC BY 2.0
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
This page is assembled from open records (Wikidata, CC0; OpenStreetMap, ODbL) and a tradition article paraphrasing Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). No article exists for this site, and nothing here is written by a model.
- Wikidata Q5832CC0
- Fringe claim sourceCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0