Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion
— — the church the Ark is said to keep.
Not only on a wall.
“The old sandstone church and its newer domed neighbour sit on the same compound in Axum, the ancient capital of the Aksumite Empire. Ethiopian Orthodox tradition holds that the original Ark of the Covenant rests in a small chapel between them, attended by a single monk who never leaves. Pilgrims come for Timkat in January and for Hidar Tsion in late November. Most days the courtyard is quiet. The stelae fields are a short walk down the hill. from the studio
Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion stands in Axum, the former capital of the Aksumite Empire in northern Ethiopia's Tigray Region. The compound holds three structures: the old rectangular church rebuilt by Emperor Fasilides in 1665, the domed new church commissioned by Emperor Haile Selassie and consecrated in 1965, and the small Chapel of the Tablet that sits between them. Ethiopian Orthodox tradition holds that the chapel houses the Ark of the Covenant, guarded by one monk. The site sits within the wider Aksum UNESCO World Heritage area, alongside the famous granite stelae.
The older church is built of dressed sandstone laid in the rectangular Ethiopian basilica plan, with a low gabled roof and a flagstone forecourt worn smooth by centuries of bare feet. The 1665 rebuild reused stone from an even earlier 4th-century foundation, traditionally attributed to King Ezana, the first Christian ruler of Aksum. The new church alongside it is concrete under a tall ribbed dome, finished in pale stucco. The Chapel of the Tablet between them is small, fenced, and unornamented. Together the three buildings read as one continuous act of keeping, across roughly sixteen centuries.
Two feast days draw the largest crowds. Timkat, the Ethiopian Orthodox celebration of Epiphany, falls on 19 January and brings processions of white-robed clergy carrying replicas of the Tablets of the Law. Hidar Tsion, the feast of Mary of Zion proper, falls on 30 November and is the church's patronal day. Pilgrims travel from across Ethiopia and from the wider diaspora. Outside those weeks the compound is quiet, and access to the women's church and the stelae park is straightforward. Women are admitted to the new church; the older one is reserved for men.