Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion

The original church is believed to have been built during the reign of Ezana the first Christian ruler of the Kingdom of Axum (present-day Eritrea and Ethiopia), during the 4th century AD, and has been rebuilt several times since then.

Women are not permitted entry into the “Old Church”; the Blessed Virgin Mary, representing the archetype of the Ark, is the only woman allowed within its premises.

[1] Since its founding during the episcopacy of Frumentius, the first Bishop of Axum, (known in Ethiopia as Abune Selama Kesatie Birhan or "Our Father of Peace the Revealer of Light"), the Church of Mary of Zion has been destroyed and rebuilt at least twice.

Which indeed meant if an Emperor was not crowned at Axum, or did not at least have his coronation ratified by a special service at St. Mary of Zion, he could not be referred to by the title of "Atse".

[citation needed] In mid-December 2020 during the Tigray War, according to Europe External Programme with Africa (EEPA), 750 people who were hiding in the church were brought out and killed by militants.

According to pious tradition, the Ark came to Ethiopia with Crown prince Menelik I after he visited his father King Solomon in Jerusalem.

[12] On 9 June 1992, a former professor of Ethiopian Studies at the University of London, Edward Ullendorff, declared that he personally examined the ark contained within the church in 1941 while serving as an officer of the British Army.