Aksum, Yeha, Debre Damo

The journey began in a Fokker 50, the first propeller plane I have
ever been on. The flight to Aksum was about an hour and a half, and
then we had the rest of the day to explore the city. We tried not to
see the major sites, just so we didn't ruin the surprise. There was a
hill/mountain behind our hotel that we climbed on the first day in
order to look at the whole city. The climb was exciting, and the view
was gorgeous. The next day we travelled to Yeha, the site of a temple
from 1000 BC. It was part of the oldest sub-saharan African
civilization. The temple was devoted to Almouqah, a south Arabian
God. From there we drove about 2 hours on the bumpiest roads I have
ever experienced to the bottom of a plateau. We then climbed as far
as we could to the base of the cliff face, and the guys got to climb a
rope/ be pulled up by another rope. Then we were on top of Debre
Damo, then oldest surviving church in Ethiopia. It was founded by one
of the Nine Saints of ethiopia, who was taken to the top by a heavenly
snake. Then we came back down, which was harder then the ascent. The next day we went on a tour of the city of Aksum, including the stella fields, and the Church of St. Mary of Zion, and the house of the Ark of the Covenant.

I was slightly dissapointed by the Ark, not quite as
exciting as I had expected. The stella however were amazing, much
taller than I thought would be possible. We finished our time in
Aksum the next morning by attending a sunrise service at the Church of St. Mary. We woke up at 4:30 and walked around the church for and
hour by candle light. It was magical to say the least. We then left
for Lalibela later that day.