Gudit Stelae Field

The Gudit Stelae Field is a non-elite necropolis located about 2 km west of central Aksum, Ethiopia, covering roughly 800 m square at 2,100 m elevation. It contains over 600 rough-hewn granite stelae dating from the 2nd to 4th century AD, marking burial sites of the Aksumite kingdom's non-royal classes. Named after the semi-legendary 10th-century Queen Gudit who defeated the last Aksumite king, the field's material culture belongs to the Shay culture. Workers quarried stelae using water-swollen wooden wedges and transported them with wood rollers and rope pulleys.