Obelisk of Axum

The stele is ornamented with two false doors at the base and carries decorations resembling windows on all sides. It ends in a semi-circular top, which used to be enclosed by metal frames.

Properly termed a stele or, in the local languages, hawelti, the so-called obelisk stands with many other steles in Axum. The steles were probably carved and erected during the 4th century CE by subjects of the Kingdom of Aksum. Their function is supposed to have been to mark underground burial chambers. The largest were for royal burial chambers and were decorated with multi-storey false windows and false doors, while lesser nobility had smaller, less decorated ones. Only a few large steles stand, but there are hundreds of smaller ones in various stele fields. The last stele erected in Axum was probably King Ezana's Stele, in the 4th century.

King Ezana (c. 321 - c. 360), influenced by his childhood tutor Frumentius, introduced Christianity to Axum, ending the pagan practice of erecting burial steles. Many steles later fell, from structural collapse (as probably in the case of the Great Stele, measuring 33 m, possibly immediately after its erection), from earthquakes, or during the military incursions of the Imam Ahmad Ibrahim in the Ethiopian-Adal War from 1529 to 1543. In the 19th century, of the three major royal steles only King Ezana's Stele remained erect.