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The third-century prophet Mani named four great powers: Rome, Persia, China and Aksum. Rising in the first century in what is now Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, Aksum grew to about two and a half million square kilometers reaching across the Red Sea. Once sailors learned to ride the monsoon winds to India, its port of Adulis controlled the Red Sea route and exported ivory, gold, tortoiseshell, rhinoceros horn and salt. A capital over 6,000 feet up with a seven-month rainy season fed its people through stone-walled terraces growing teff, wheat and barley. In the late third century King Endubis began minting coins in gold, silver and bronze, later found as far away as Caesarea and southern India.

In the mid fourth century King Ezana, tutored by the Syrian Christian Frumentius, made Christianity the state religion, and his coins swap the pagan crescent and disc for the cross. In 525 King Kaleb, urged by Emperor Justin I, invaded Himyar in Yemen after Dhu Nuwas persecuted Christians at Najran, but the general Abraha seized power and twice defeated Kaleb’s fleets. Persians drove Aksum from Yemen around 570, Arab caliphates took over Red Sea shipping, and coinage stopped by the early eighth century. Drought and soil erosion, Beja raids and, according to tradition, Queen Gudit’s destruction around 960 ended the kingdom.

• Monkey head timber beams set into stone walls let Aksumite palaces flex in earthquakes.
• The largest stele attempted stood 33 meters, carved as a multistory tower with false doors and windows and held by underground counterweights.
• Aksum’s Ge’ez script is an abugida, altering each consonant’s shape to show the vowel that follows.
• Around 615 King Ashama ibn Abjar sheltered Muhammad’s persecuted followers and refused Meccan demands to hand them over.
• The rock-cut churches of Lalibela reproduce Aksumite monkey head details in solid stone.