Ethiopia - Mai Shum

The Mai Shum or "Queen of Sheeba's bath", is a large water basin located at the base of the Mai Qoho hill in Aksum.

People use it as a water supply, although they have to process it at home to make it drinkable (usually by boiling it). During the time of our visit, it was running relatively low on water, but luckily the rainy season was only a month away during which it would refill again. As far as I'm told, it's been there for a very long time and has been used for the same purpose ever since the day it was created. Water flows near so this was an ideal place to dig a large basin for the town's water supply. Unfortunately it's not very clean, but it's better than not having any water at all. The whole area around Aksum was pretty dry and the closest water supply could be miles away. People would usually tank up quite a few containers before heading back if they came here.

Imagine walking 2-10km to your nearest water supply and having to drag back large canisters of water for your family. That's what many of these people do every day and not just in Aksum but everywhere in Ethiopia.

AFRICAN EXPOSURE 2006 - ETHIOPIA II | See the entire collection [link]

Ancient Scripture [link] Axumite Civilization [link] Aksum [link] Obelisk [link] Tomb Raider [link]