Saturday, April 19, 2014

Q is for Queen of Sheba

Local lore says that the Queen of Sheba when to visit King Solomon and while there conceived a child – Menelik I. Menelik then later went back to Israel, met his father, and swiped the Ark of the Covenant from him and brought it to Axum. Menelik's descendents then went on to rule Ethiopia until modern times, aside from a brief time during the middle ages.

Most historians disagree with the story, the Queen of Sheba is not thought to be from Ethiopia and even if she was she lived in a time way before Menelik sat on the thrown according to popular belief. However, I am reading the Sign and Seal right now and the author so far sounds pretty sure that the story, complete with transporting the Ark to Ethiopia, is plausible.

Not that any one can see the Ark. It's pricey to just get into the church the chapel holding it is, and the Ark's space can only be accessed by a single priest. I have however gone to see Queen Sheba's palace in Axum and I can imagine it used to be quite impressive. 

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Really interesting post. Nice to meet and connect through the atozchallenge.
http://aimingforapublishingdeal.blogspot.co.uk/

The Daily Bern said...

Very interesting stuff! Shawn from Laughing at Life 2

Corinne said...

Interesting. My mother was taken by the Queen of Sheba, and I would love to see her palace.

A Tarkabarka Hölgy said...

That's one place I would definitely love to visit one day. I have always loved the Queen's story :)

@TarkabarkaHolgy from
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