Axum- The first capital of Ethiopia
The Old Testament makes no fewer than thirty references to Ethiopia ("Cush" to the Hebrews). Mosses wed an "Ethiopian" woman (Numbers 12:1). According to tradition, the Ethiopian nation was founded by Etiopik, great grandson of Noah, and Axum (Aksum) was founded by Etiopik's son, Aksumai.
 
Queen Makeda of Sabea (Sheba) would have been a member of this dynasty; she ruled a vast area that included Yemen, and in her reign Ethiopians traded with peoples as far as Palestine and India. Makeda ventured to Jerusalem to visit King Solomon, by whom she bore a son, Menelik (from Ibn-al-Malik, Son of the King).
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During the Axumite times the old Ge-ez became the official language and it is still used in the Ethiopian church. The origin of this language can be found with the South-Arabic that groups of people spoke, who came from Yemen long before Axumite times.

Axum had a rich architecture as appears from the big obelisks, still to be seen, and still a inspiration for modern builders.
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The church St Mary of Zion is the place where the Ark of the Covenant resides. The decline of the Axum started with the rising of Islam in Arabia and the growth of it in Africa and Asia. Axum got shut off from her trading partners and populations in the region revolted against a weakening centre.
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Thus was established the Solomonic dynasty, which tradition identifies with various lines amalgamated into the dynasty that ruled until 1974.

It is believed that Menelik visited his father in Jerusalem for three years as a young adult, learning the Mosaic law, and returned to Ethiopia with the Ark of the Covenant.
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The founding of the Empire of Axum in the 5th century BC is often taken as the starting point of the Ethiopian civilisation. The Kingdom maintained trading relations both with the Greec-Roman world and with India and China during it's most prosperous times.
 
   

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