{"id":423900,"date":"2018-03-07T17:31:29","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T22:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiImh0dHBzOi8vd2hjLnVuZXNjby5vcmcvZW4vbGlzdC8xNS_SAQA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-09-09T15:40:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T19:40:42","slug":"aksum-unesco-world-heritage-and-the-heart-of-ethiopias-ancient-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/423900","title":{"rendered":"Aksum: UNESCO World Heritage and the heart of Ethiopia\u2019s ancient empire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Aksum<\/strong> (Axum) in Tigray is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as the capital of a major ancient civilization that linked the Ethiopian highlands to the Red Sea trade of the first millennium CE.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"780\" width=\"780\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-279260\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/PM-Abiy-Ahmeds-public-meeting-in-Aksum-northern-Ethiopia.jpg?fit=780%2C780&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Aksum: UNESCO World Heritage and the heart of Ethiopia\u2019s ancient empire\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Giant granite stelae, royal tombs, palace ruins, and the Church of St. Mary of Zion\u2014central to Ethiopian Orthodox tradition and the Ark of the Covenant narrative\u2014make Aksum both an archaeological site and a living pilgrimage center.<\/p>\n<p>Conflict damage and conservation needs in recent years have only heightened the importance of documenting and protecting Aksum\u2019s heritage for Ethiopian and global audiences.<\/p>\n<h3>Sources<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/whc.unesco.org\/en\/list\/15\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UNESCO \u2013 Aksum<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/whc.unesco.org\/en\/statesparties\/et\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UNESCO World Heritage Centre \u2013 Ethiopia<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aksum&nbsp;&nbsp;UNESCO.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":279260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/PM-Abiy-Ahmeds-public-meeting-in-Aksum-northern-Ethiopia.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1Mh6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423900"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":599635,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423900\/revisions\/599635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}