The Stela of Metara


I know it's been awhile. I'm now back in the US after a very busy month in the Hague and Egypt. I'll report more on those adventures soon, but in the meantime, I'm finally going to tell you about the Stela of Metara. I've been promising this report for a long time, so here goes:

I would like to take you back to Eritrea and to the third week of March 2007, when I went to Senafe for work. While I was there, Simon and I had the opportunity to visit Metara, and Ancient Axumite city. I don't know much about Metara or the Axumites, so I am going to refer to the Lonely Planet guide to Ethiopia and Eritrea for my explanation.

"Around the 1st century AD (or even earlier), the powerful kingdom of Aksum began to develop. Situated in Tigray, in the north of modern Ethiopia ... Aksum lay just 170km from the Red Sea. Much foreign trade--on which Aksum's prosperity depended--was seaborne and came to be handled by the ancient port of Adulis in Eritrea."

In addition to Adulis, at least two other important Aksumite cities were located in present-day Eritrea. These are Metara and Qohaito.

"Metara is important [as an Aksumite] site for three main reasons: for its age--some of it, from about the 5th century BC, actually predates Aksum; for its huge size--it spreads over at least 20 hectares, making it the largest Aksumite site after Aksum itself and Aksum's port, Adulis; and for its unusual character--it is the only place in the Aksumite civilisation where a large bourgeois community is known to have thrived."



"One of Metera's most important objects is its enigmatic stele. Unique in Eritrea, the stele is known for its pagan, pre-Christian symbol of the sun over the crescent moon, engraved on the top of the eastern face. Like the famous Aksum stelae, it faces eastward.

"Standing 2.5m tall, the stele has an inscription near the middle in Ge'ez. An unknown king dedicates the stele to his ancestors who had subjugated the 'the mighty people of Awanjalon, Tsebelan.'"

The Stela was vandalized by Ethiopian soldiers during the 1998 to 2000 border war. Much of the base of the Stela was destroyed. But thanks to a donation from UNESCO, the Stela has been repaired. Nevertheless, the existing Stela is only a fraction of its former self. In fact, the base of the current Stela is entirely new.



In addition to the Stela, there are ruins of former Axumite buildings at Metara. Down here are the old entrances to three tunnels. According to the little girl who led us around, the tunnel my right led to Quohaito, the tunnel I'm leaning against led to Adulis, and the tunnel to my left led to Axum.