Travel Guide Tiya

The village of Tiya, 35 km from Adadi Mariam, is famous for its field of 2-5 m-high stelae, a UNESCO World Heritage site. History tells us nothing about the populations who erected these monuments and whose remains rest there, but dating studies have placed the cemetery in the 13th and 14th centuries AD. Among the forty stelae, some are broken or lying down, while others are still buried. Most are engraved with motifs of uncertain meaning. Among the most common, daggers or swords could symbolize the burial of warriors. Underneath, circles, X's, upside-down W's, a kind of palm tree and busts of women remain mysterious. A small rectangle of stone delimits the tombs where skeletons have been exhumed in a seated position, knees bent over the chest. In the surrounding area, a multitude of other steles or mysterious carved stones are hidden near villages, in fields or enset plantations.