DUNGUR - PALACE OF THE QUEEN OF SABA
Ruins of the Queen of Sheba's palace with outdoor patio, stone rooms, kitchen with brick oven..
Dungur is the name given to the ruins of the palace of the Queen of Sheba, also known as Queen Makeda in Ethiopia, whose kingdom covered present-day Yemen in South Arabia, as far as Ethiopia and Eritrea (before the emergence of the Axumite kingdom founded in the 1st century AD). According to biblical, Hebrew, evangelical and Koranic writings, she ruled the kingdom and, along with Solomon, king of the Hebrews, had Menelik I, the first Solomonic king of Ethiopia. In 2008, German researchers reportedly discovered the existence of this palace, built in the 10th century BC under the present one. According to the same researchers, it was rebuilt on top of it by Menelik and oriented towards the star Sirius, which he worshipped.
Today, the first floor is still visible. In the center, an outdoor patio communicated with the enclosed buildings. Stones supporting wooden columns and flooring are still visible. The use of this palace remains a mystery: the stone-built rooms had no doors. One of the rooms, however, is thought to have been the throne room, if its distinctive stone floor is anything to go by. There were also hidden treasure chambers, a bathroom and a kitchen with a brick oven. Puglisi was the first architect to excavate several strata. A second architect excavated in the 1970s. A castle built in the 7th century is said to have been inhabited by local nobility.
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