Axum: A Unique Ancient African City

Axum is an ancient city in Africa; this city is very different than the others found in Sub Saharan Africa. Axum adopted Christianity during the 4th century; which is also the time Constantine adopted it in the Roman Empire. King Ezana, the monarch of the time, decided to adopt Christianity. Today, Axum is known as the religious capital of the Christians of Ethiopia.

Axum was different from other cities for another reason. The city of Axum used plows to farm wheat and other crops. Most other cities used hand tools like hoes and digging sticks. Axum harvested wheat, millet, and barley. They also harvested a very unique grain to the region; teff. Teff is a highly nutritious grain that was hard to come by in Africa.

This may not seem very interesting, but if you think about the things that are present in the United States today; Axum was an amazing city in Africa. The main religion in the US today is Christianity and Axum was the first city in Africa to use it as their main religion. Their farming system is also very common these days; to harvest most of our crops we us big plows and other machinery. Imagine if we just used hand tools like hoes or digging sticks; I don’t think that would turn out so well.

My information can be found in the book Ways of The World by Robert Strayer and http://www.incredible-ethiopia.com/Axum.html.