Ethiopian Obelisk Going Green for St. Patrick’s Day

Ethiopian Airlines, the largest and fastest growing airline in Africa throws its weight behind the annual Global Greening initiative of St. Patrick’s Day held recently.

To commemorate the holiday and as part of the “Greenification of the World” campaign, launched by the Irish Tourism Board six years ago, the Axum Obelisks were turned green.

This year for the first time ever, the ancient Stele in Axum along with the Coliseum in Rome and Nelson’s Column in London as well as 147 other world's most famous landmarks turned green as part of St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

The Axum Obelisks are the symbol of the wealth and civilization of the ancient Axumite Kingdom that lasted from the 1st to the 8th AD. The Kingdom was at the crossroads of Africa, Arabia and the Greco-Roman World, and was the most powerful state between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia, and in parts of South Arabia.

The ruins of the ancient Axumite Civilization currently cover a wide area in the Tigray regional state of Ethiopia. The Steles are one of the country’s major tourist attractions and are registered UNESCO World Heritage sites.
The largest standing obelisk has a height of over 23 meters and is intricately carved to replicate a nine-story building. But the largest stele overall, is 33 meters long and lies where it fell, perhaps during the process of erection.

2000 years ago Axum was among the four great powers of its time along with Persia, Rome and China. Currently, Ethiopia is making a comeback and is showing considerable promise to return to its days of glory and prosperity. Strong economic growth of around 10.5% over the past few years and extraordinary progress on infrastructural development are putting Ethiopia back on the map for all the right reasons. Ethiopia has now become among the top 10 countries to be visited.

Ethiopian will be launching a promotional flight to Dublin, Ireland using its ultra-modern Boeing 787 Dreamliner on March 20, 2015. This flight is in anticipation of Ethiopian direct service to Dublin and Los Angeles starting from June 19, 2015. The commencement of this new service will play a critical role in the expansion of trade, tourism and investment ties between Africa and Ireland. The flights will be the first and only direct air route linking Africa with Ireland.

Ethiopian offers four daily flights to the historical city of Axum. Our in-house tour operations, Ethiopian Holidays, awaits with attractive leisure, historical, cultural and other comprehensive packages which can be accessed through multiple sales outlets, including our worldwide sales offices, website, and travel agencies.

Ethiopian is a global Pan-African carrier currently serving 84 international destinations across 5 continents with over 200 daily flights using the latest technology aircraft such as the B777s and B787s Dreamliner.