Aksum is an archeological site that covers the remains of an influential city of ancient Ethiopia. it is the seat of an Empire which extended across the Red Sea to Arabia, traded with India and China, had its own alphabet and notational system, constructed great engineering works and dams and which was reckoned in the 4th century to be one of the four great powers of the ancient world.
The ruins include stelae (the largest single pieces of stone erected anywhere in the world), tombs, castles and obelisks of kings. The city was the original capital of the eponymous kingdom of Axum. The kingdom had its own written language called Ge’ez, and also developed a distinctive architecture exemplified by giant obelisks, the oldest of which (though much smaller) date from 5000–2000 BC. This kingdom was at its height under king Ezana, baptized as Abreha, in the 4th century AD (which was also when it officially embraced Christianity).