More than 2,000 years ago, sailors on the Red Sea watched for the low buildings of Adulis, a port that traded with three continents. Ships arrived from Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and across the Indian Ocean, all seeking the same African ivory, tortoiseshell, rhinoceros horn, and gold carried up from the interior.
Aksum
Traders unloaded wine and olive oil from the Mediterranean, glass and metalwork, and fine cloth from India and Egypt. Sailors, merchants, and translators from a half-dozen lands crowded its docks and markets, making Adulis one of the most cosmopolitan places in the ancient world.
Adulis and Aksum grew together into one kingdom. Aksum, about 100 miles away from Adulis in the highlands, needed a sea outlet for trade. Adulis, on the coast, needed goods to trade and a food source, since the coast could not grow enough on its own. Over time, the two became parts of the same kingdom, with Aksum as the capital and Adulis as its port.
Great Wealth
By the 500s, trade had transformed Aksum into a capital worthy of a powerful king. Its royal palaces stood on high stone platforms above the surrounding city. One palace complex was nearly the size of two football fields. Inside were paved floors, courtyards, painted rooms, and columns that supported upper stories. Nearby stood towering stone stelae, giant carved obelisks that marked royal underground tombs. The kingdom was so formidable that the Persian prophet Mani ranked Aksum alongside Rome, Persia, and China as one of the four great powers of the world.
Christianity
In the early fourth century CE, Christianity traveled the same Red Sea routes that had brought wealth to Aksum. According to Christian tradition, a young Christian named Frumentius was captured after his ship stopped along the Red Sea coast. Taken to the royal court, he became tutor to the young prince Ezana. When Ezana became king, he adopted Christianity. Christianity had spread through Egypt and the Roman world, and now had one of its earliest African kingdoms.
Decline
During the seventh century CE, the trade network that had made Aksum rich began to break apart. Muslim states gained control of much of the Red Sea, and trade routes that had once passed through Adulis shifted elsewhere. The port declined, and Aksum gradually lost its political power. The city did not vanish, however. It remained a holy Christian center, and emperors continued to be crowned there for centuries.
Ethiopia
Cut off from the Red Sea, the Christian kingdom retreated south into the rugged highlands. Over time, the name Ethiopia, first used by Greek writers for lands south of Egypt, came to describe the highland kingdom that grew from Aksum. There, a new highland dynasty rose, and one of its kings ordered eleven churches carved straight out of solid volcanic rock at Lalibela. The complex showed that Ethiopia’s rulers still had the wealth, skilled workers, and authority to undertake enormous building projects. A later dynasty governed Ethiopia for seven centuries, until its final emperor, Haile Selassie, was overthrown in 1974.
Two Cities, Two Countries
European countries controlled nearly all of Africa. Ethiopia remained independent except from 1936 to 1941, when Italy occupied the country. Decades of conflict led to coastal independence in 1993, creating modern Eritrea. Aksum remained in Ethiopia, while Adulis became part of Eritrea—finally severing the ancient relationship between the highland capital and the sea.
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Mr. Donn has an excellent website that includes a section on Africa.
Cite this page:
Dowling, Mike, “Aksum and Ethiopia,” mrdowling.com, September 23, 2026. Web. [Date of access].