Despite being the crudest of tombs, roughly hewn into solid rock instead of constructed with fine masonry, this place has a slightly magical feel about it. A rectangular pit above the tomb contains a row of burial chambers, including a few that appear to be unfinished. Judging from the number of tombs and stelae found nearby, the burial site may once have been quite large and important.
According to local beliefs, King Bazen is thought not just to have reigned at Christ’s birth, but to have been Balthazar, and it was he who carried news of the birth of Christ to Ethiopia.
