"It's to cleanse bad luck from the community. They're performing it because of the war." The receptionist is very skeptical of their decision to show up during a war.

Zoe doesn't blame her.

The receptionist has good judgement. “Tell me about King Bazen’s Tomb?”

"It's a megalith, one of the oldest structures in Axum. Local legend believes that it is the tomb of King Bazen, who is also known as Balthazar, the wise man who gave a gift of myrrh and brought word of Christ to Ethiopia."

Which is a different thing from a monolith. Sure.

(Megaliths hang down from the ceiling of the cave and monoliths rise up from the floor of the cave.)

Zoe still has no idea what to expect at this ritual and has no idea how long it will take or whether she will be expected to watch or to participate or if there's a special visitor's area to stay in or whether it will involve any human sacrifices.

These seem like important things to know about a ritual before you attend, but she is really not sure what to ask to get clarity on these questions.

Between the stelae, the tomb, and the cathedral, it seems like a LOT of the notable landmarks around here are big rocks about dead people.

"What about the baths?'

"A reservoir on the north edge of town which is reached by a stair of long, broad stone. Local legend has named it the bathhouse of the Queen of Sheba. In the ritual you're going to, water from the reservoir is mixed with water from the fountain of the Cathedral of St. Mary and 'painted' on King Ezana's Stone."

Oh that sounds much better than the other rituals she's heard about recently.

Actually you'll find that painting is very suspect. He knows about the religious connections between water and wine and blood.

Well, it’s two days before the ritual, so probably they don’t want to go visit the Ezana Stone yet. Where do they want to go?

"The cathedral sounds like it might be the only place that's not just a big rock?"

"Good a reason as any."

“The baths also have water and a stair. But I would like to visit the cathedral, yes.”

Oh look a big rock.

It's actually got some pleasant trees and archways and stuff so that's nice.

Maybe even interiors. He hears monoliths are short on those.
 
 
 
 

There’s stained glass! And paintings! And artefacts! It is almost entirely unlike a big rock in as many as Several ways.

The Cathedral has:

-The Chapel of the Tablet, which stores the Ark of the Covenant itself.

-A rare books library.

-A beautiful collection of crowns of some of Ethiopia's former rulers.

They are probably not allowed at the rare books are they.

The nun will ask if she can look at the rare books, and if there’s anything she should be careful of so as not to damage them.

The nun is given instructions about the rare book library, and informed that an archaeologist named Louise Fauche is also inside.

Zoe is historically terrible at gaining information from old books but she's willing to give it the old no-formal-education-try. "Man this place is really popular with the archaeologists, isn't it?"

“There are four places to go here, and likely more than four archaeologists. It isn’t particularly surprising to find one here.” Rare books! 

They find the three-volumed Book of Axum. 

(Louise Fauche is also studying the book of Axum, but seems sufficiently absorbed in it that she ignores them.)