Axum Quotes

All my friends were at one time strangers.

Did you know that Ethiopia might have fifteen-hundred rock churches? Most are carved ou of rock outcropping. Some date back to the 13th century. Even the locals have forgotten where they are all located. Some are in caves, in the ground, and on top of tabletop mountains like Debre Damo. If the falashas wanted to hide the Ark, they would have lots of choices that were more secure than the middle of Axum.

Stillness is expected at every cemetery. It’s appropriate for several reasons, not the least of which is the peacefulness the deceased finally have earned. The stillness at a military cemetery is all the more moving, given the contrast between the utter silence there and the din of battle that no doubt attended the deaths of many of the 5,329 American military personnel buried at Ardennes.

He remembered the first time he ever took a train. It was in late February 1944, when he went off to camp. He had been sipping coffee early in the morning at the small kitchen table. Annie Mae and baby Sharon were still sleeping, so he was watching some squirrels chasing each other outside the window. They looked so happy and full of life that he wondered if he would see the same happiness in Europe, or if the ravages of war had already dampened even the spirits of the squirrels.

The flight took less than two hours from beginning to end, placing them on the ground in Axum by 9:15.

The situation was now far too volatile to allow such a rumor out.  Revolutions had a way of igniting from the inside from the most unexpected places, turning into unruly mobs which history had shown time and time again to be utterly unpredictable. The safest and most sensible play was to simply kill Graham Goodwin and then decide whether the Americans would have to be silenced, too. But now, after hearing the latest recording of their conversation from Axum, the stakes had wildly changed.  Was it possible the Tabot truly existed, that it had been hidden near Lake Tana the entire time? The president was still a believer, even if Negasi wasn’t.  But now Negasi wasn’t so sure.  The new clues that had been unearthed with the help of the Americans had him doubting everything he’d thought he knew. Was it truly possible?  The ultimate hoax perpetrated by the Falashas?

Where do they think it is?” “In the city of Axum.” “Where is that?” “Near Ethiopia’s northern border.  Seven or eight hundred kilometers from here.” “Have you been there?” “Of course,” replied Goodwin.  “It’s where I was arrested.

But Dhu Nuwas’s letter gave birth to a rumor that still lives. The kingdom of Himyar had long ago spread across the old territory once governed by the Sabeans, whose queen had journeyed north to see the great Israelite king Solomon in his capital of Jerusalem. And Dhu Nuwas was said to have sworn his oath to the Christians on the Ark. Perhaps the Ark of the Covenant, lost long ago, had in fact been taken down into Sabea by descendents of the queen, and Dhu Nuwas’s oath meant that he had the Ark in his possession; and perhaps Caleb, plundering the capital city of Himyar after his victory, took the Ark back across the Red Sea into Axum. It is still rumored to rest there, in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, in the ancient capital of the Axumites.

As powerful as her responses were, they paled in comparison to Axum’s. To be with Axum in that way was to feel his need, his hunger and his release along with her own and as if they were her own. It was the same for Axum. Her fears, doubts, and, yes, desires became his, even as they tempered his. There was nothing for them to learn of one another. Everything thought, every breath, the slightest touch moved seamlessly into the next, propelled by absolute certainty of one another’s desires. Complete satisfaction was a foregone conclusion as they moved deeper into one another, beyond their bodies and into a place where they alone existed, perpetually intertwined, woven together into one being.

Axum might have been her first love. He might have part of her heart forever. But she’s a different woman now, and that woman chose you. You’ve got the upper hand because you’re here. If you still want her, fight for her. If you’re not willing to do that, you don’t deserve her.” Using