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Aksumite Empire

Type Object Region East Africa Time c. 100–700

The Aksumite Empire was an East African kingdom centered on present-day northern Ethiopia and Eritrea from the 1st to 7th centuries CE, controlling R…

Timeline

  1. c. 600–650Aksum · EthiopiaAfter its conversion to Christianity in the 4th century, the kingdom continued to use Aksum as its capital through the 6th–7th centuries; church and royal authority were intertwined, and obelisks and church architecture displayed the status of the state religion.
  2. c. 650–700Red Sea and Gulf of Aden coast · Red SeaThe kingdom still participated in Indian Ocean–Red Sea commerce, but the Sasanian Persians and then Arab forces pressed southward, eroding its control over Yemen and the sea lanes, and state power gradually declined.

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