Aksum, the extensive ruins of which can still be seen, was an important city. Its buildings included impressive stone palaces and temples. Its ruler put up the famous obelisks, or stelae, which were beautifully cut of single pieces of stone. They left stone inscriptions, written in Ge’ez (classic Ethiopian), Sabean (language of South Arabia) and Greek, describing the military campaigns of the time. They suggest that it was from Aksum that Makeda, the fabled Queen of Sheba, journeyed to visit King Solomon in Jerusalem. Legend has it that a son was born to the Queen from her union with Solomon. This son, Menelik I, grew up in Ethiopia but travelled to Jerusalem as a young man. There he spent several years before coming back to his own country
