Aksum was both the principal city of the Aksumite Kingdom and the place from which the kingdom took its name. It appears in the Periplus Maris Erythraei at the end of the first century and is mentioned again by Ptolemy in the second century. Its inland position was connected to the Red Sea port of Adulis by an ancient commercial route, giving the city access to goods and exchanges moving between the coast and the interior.

By the third century, Aksum enjoyed a reputation that extended beyond the region. A text attributed to Mani described its kingdom as the “third in the world.” The city’s monumental remains preserve the memory of this political importance: gigantic stelae, a huge stone table, throne bases, column fragments, royal tombs, and extensive ruins beneath later structures all formed part of its ancient urban landscape.

Archaeological work identified several palace complexes in the western part of the town. Enda-Semon measured about thirty-five metres square, Enda-Mikael twenty-seven metres, and Taakha-Maryam twenty-four metres; each belonged to a larger rectangular complex of courtyards and outbuildings. Another imposing structure lies beneath or near Maryam-Tsion, where the remains of a broad basement survive below the level of the terrace.

The city also contained elaborate funerary monuments. Crypts traditionally associated with Kaleb and Guebra-Masqal were built with several vaulted chambers, while nearby necropolises and shaft tombs extended the funerary zone. At Bazen, rock-cut tombs included multiple chambers and a stairway of seventeen steps, once dominated by a stele among numerous fallen monuments.