Aksum's tallest stele, 33 metres high, probably collapsed as it was being raised and still lies broken.
The last one erected was likely the 21-metre stele of King Ezana, under whom Aksum became Christian.
The events
- The rise of Aksumc. 100 · Aksum, Ethiopian Highlands. From the 1st century AD the kingdom of Aksum in northern Ethiopia controlled Red Sea trade through the port of Adulis. Its kings minted their own gold coins, a rarity in the ancient world, and in the 3rd century the prophet Mani named Aksum one of the four great kingdoms alongside Rome, Persia and China. Its granite stelae, up to 33 m tall, still recall its power.
- Aksum adopts Christianityc. 330 · Aksum. King Ezana of Aksum, guided by his tutor Frumentius, converted to Christianity, and the cross replaced pagan symbols on his coins. Aksum, a trading power linking Rome, Arabia and India, became one of the world's first Christian states.
More amazing facts
- 301 · 313 · 330 Among the first Christian states were Armenia (traditionally 301) and Aksum in Ethiopia (around 330).
- 340 · 1972 A cure for malaria was found in a 1,600-year-old recipe.
- 350 The Romans used nanotechnology without knowing it. The 4th-century Lycurgus Cup is green in reflected light and red when lit from within, thanks to gold and silver particles just tens of nanometres wide.
- 354 The earliest record of Christmas as a feast on 25 December is in a Roman almanac of 354.
- 378 In January 378, a party from Teotihuacan arrived at the Maya city of Tikal, about 1,000 km away.
- 402 · 1969 In 1969 Erich von Däniken cited Delhi's rustless iron pillar as evidence of alien visitors.