The Ark of the Covenant
According to the legend and to some historical facts, in the Church St Mary of Sion, Axum, is kept the Ark of the Covenant. It was brought from Jerusalem by Menelik, the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
I had heard that it is meticulously protected by an old bearded monk who spends his life in solitary contemplation, a man with love of God, purity of heart, cleanliness of mind and body. Even the President of Ethiopia is not allowed to go in.
Nevertheless I risked entering the Sancta Santorum where supposedly is this Holy of Holiest sheltered. I surrounded the Church and where I noticed that the walls were less high, I gathered stones and climbed. Once inside I took my shoes off and ran to a room covered by a curtain. Then swallowed saliva and tried to culminate my purpose when, suddenly, a strong hand held my shoulders. He reprimanded me:
Where you go, bold man?
It was the guardian!
He gently invited me to leave the Church premises, what I did after begging his pardon.
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Debre Damos
Debre Damos is an amazing monastery forbidden to women and female animals. Men are not allowed if they have had sexual intercourse during the previous 48 hours. It was founded in the XIII century, in the place of a previous monastery dating from the sixth century.
Once you arrive to the area you have to walk some hundreds metres and then you still have to climb about 15 metres through a rope to get up to the top of a plateau. Monks over 60 years old are so agile and have so much experience that they climb the huge mountain easily.
In the whole monastery area live about 200 Coptic monks, many of them have not descended to the ground floor for years. They will ask you a contribution of a few birrs for the visit and will offer you beer without alcohol. You have to take off your shoes to enter the monastery.
The scenery is wonderful, much spectacular then in Debre Lebanos Monastery (in the way between Addis Abbaba and Bahar Dar). You will be at about 2800 metres altitude.
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