Menelik I was the legendary first Emperor of Ethiopia. According to Kebra Nagast, a 14th-century national epic, in the 10th century BC he is said to have inaugurated the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia, so named because Menelik I was the son of the biblical King Solomon of ancient Israel and of Makeda, the Queen of Sheba.
Detail from a larger painting in the church at Axum
Emperor Menelik I Bringing the Zion Tabot [ Ark of the covenant ] to Axum.
Geʽez is an ancient South Semitic language. The language originates from what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Ezana stone, written in Ge'ez explaining his conquests and accomplishments
Genesis 29.11–16 in Geʽez
Example of Geʽez taken from a 15th-century Ethiopian Coptic prayer book
The Ezana Stone, engraved from AD 330 to 356, is written in ancient Ge'ez, Sabaean and Greek.