The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion (“Igzi’itne Maryam S’iyon Yeityop'iya Ortodoks Baytekristiyan” in the languages of Ethiopia) of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is the most important and one of the oldest churches of Ethiopia.

As you stand in the park of the stelae, you would see, across the road , a spacious walled compound containing two churches - one old and the other recent. The new one, which had a domed roof and a lofty bell- tower in the shape of an obelisk, had been built by Haile Selassie in the 1960s. 

The Chapel of th Ark of the Covenant

The original church is believed to have been built during the reign of Ezana,the first Orthodox Christian Emperor of Ethiopia, during the 4th Century AD.Since its founding during the Episcopacy of Frumentius (Known in Ethiopia as Abune Selama Kesaty Birhan or Our father of peace and revealer of light ) The church of St Mary of Zion has been destroyed and rebuilt at least twice.

Its first destruction occurred at the hands of Queen Gudit during the 11th century. The second destruction occurred several centuries later at the hands of the great Muslim warrior of Harar, Ahmed Ibn Ibrahim Al-Ghazi who , threatened the complete extinction of Ethiopian .after that it was rebuilt in the mid-seventeenth century by Emperor Fasiledes who, like so many Ethiopian monarch had been crowned in Axum .

As you study the interior of the old church you would notice several striking murals including one depicting the story of the life of Mary, another that of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ, and a third the legend of Saint Yared - the supposed inventor of Ethiopia's church music still applied in the present Orthodox church.

Not far from the old church were the ruins of a building whose only foundations are visible. Only a platform and the wide stone steps remain from the earlier structure. The start of construction works is believed to be at AD 372 - which meant that this was quite possibly among the earliest Christian church in Africa.Shortly before its destruction, by the Muslim warior this - the now ruined -church was visited by Portuguese visitor named Francisco Alvarez. Here is a piece from his description of what he saw:

“It is very large and has five naves of a good width and of a great length, vaulted above, and all the vaults are covered up, and the ceiling and sides are all painted; it also has a choir after our fashion ... This noble church has a very large circuit, paved with flagstones, like gravestones, and it has a large enclosure, and is surrounded by another large enclosure like the wall of a large town or city. “

The church was regarded as the most sacred place in all Ethiopia. This was so because it was built to house the Ark of the Covenant - which, according to some researchers, must have arrived in the country long before the birth of Christ.When Alvarez visited this place in the 1520s the Ark was still in the Holy of Holies of the ancient church. It did not stay there for very much longer, however. In the early 1530s, with the invading armies of Ahmed Gragn drawing ever closer, the sacred relic escaped the destruction by being removed to some other secret place A hundred years later the Ark was brought back and installed in the second Saint Mary's - built by Fasilidas. It stayed there until 1965 when Haile Selassie had it moved to the new building.

The Ark remains a significant center of pilgrimage for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians ,especially during the main festival of Maryam Zion on 30 November (21 Hidar on the Ethiopian calendar.