sacred sites: Africa 883 having its body cut up and scattered; where the limbs and organs of the body came to rest a sacred place was made and a shrine was raised The shrines contained the spirits of ancestors and the representation of a protective totemic animal The Dogon mythology extended its conception of sacred place to the star Sirius and its invisible companion, known as Sirius B, a smaller companion star that was not known to European astronomers until well after the invention of the telescope Supernatural power also was associated with monuments and tombs left by earlier, vanished civilizations In the upper Nile Valley the kingdom of Kush grew rich from the trade in iron, gold, and textiles; fought Roman legions to a standstill; and extended its authority throughout what is now northern Sudan and as far west as Lake Chad, at the southern limit of the Sahara Modeling their society on the Egyptian realm, the Kushites worshiped the Egyptian gods and, like the Egyptians, preserved the bodies of their rulers within elaborate pyramids The kingdom of Kush fell by the third century of the Common Era, after its defeat by a king of the Ethiopian realm of Axum Near the Kushitic capital of Meroë, on the east bank of the river, more than 200 pyramids remained, testifying to the power and wealth of Kush over an empty desert plain To the north the much larger pyramids and monuments of the Egyptian civilization were considered evil symbols of a false pagan religion by the Christians who inhabited the lower Nile Valley under Byzantine rule in the early medieval period Many Egyptian monuments were destroyed, their tombs robbed of treasure, their inscriptions erased, and their stone used for the construction of new cities such as medieval Cairo The physical remains of ancient Egypt could never be erased, however, and the Nile Valley and the surrounding deserts contained thousands of temples and monuments marking out sites considered sacred to the gods The temple of Amun in the Siwa oasis was the site of a famous oracle once consulted by Alexander the Great The oasis resisted the Islamic conquest for several centuries, becoming a sanctuary for medieval Christian pilgrims and way station for anchorites who made their homes in the remote desert to be closer to the divine Mount Horeb, rising in the Sinai Peninsula, was considered sacred by Jews, Muslims, and Christians According to tradition, Moses received the tablets of the law and the Ten Commandments on the mountain’s slopes A sixth-century monastery, Saint Catherine’s, provided a resting place for pilgrims and remains in operation to this day—the oldest functioning Christian monastery in the world Religious monuments were scattered throughout the nearby landscape By Jewish tradition the law tablets of Moses were contained within the Ark of the Covenant, which vanished from its sanctuary in Jerusalem and, according to common belief in Ethiopia, was taken south by Menelik, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba A medieval treasury was built near the Church of Saint Mary in Axum to house the Ark It has remained a holy shrine, and viewing of it is still forbidden to all but the priest appointed for life to guard the Ark Near Axum is Lalibela, the site of monolithic Christian churches that were originally founded during the reign of Gebre Mesqel Lalibela in the late 12th century After making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, this ruler returned to Ethiopia and attempted to recreate what he had seen in Jerusalem, which fell to the Muslims in 1187 after nearly a century of rule by Christian crusaders from Europe Eleven churches were hewn directly out of rock The largest, the Bete Medhane Alem, contains the Lalibela cross and is the largest monolithic church in the world Bele Golgotha holds the tomb of King Lalibela The churches were built over a long period of time; some may have been constructed from the remains of earlier fortifications that were raised during the time of Axum Empire Rock paintings created by the San are common signifiers of sacred space in the deserts of southwestern Africa In the Kalahari the site of Tsodilo contains more than 4,000 rock paintings created over many thousands of years The paintings are made from mineral pigments, mostly red ochre, and depict wild game and hunters More recent paintings that date from as early as the sixth century show domesticated animals and abstract shapes The San consider this ancient outdoor gallery to be the abode of ancestors A similar purpose is seen in Ambohimanga, a hill that marks a royal precinct and burial ground on the island nation of Madagascar and where a palace was built in the 15th century The site encompasses fountains and pools whose waters were used for the purification of dead kings as well as shrines and altars and certain trees and groves considered to have spiritual significance In Uganda the royal tombs at Kasubi mark a sacred precinct within the national capital at Kampala Historians believe the site may have been venerated by the Luo, a people who migrated into Uganda from the north in the 15th century The site was later adopted as a royal burying ground, maintained by clans with specific tasks: the Nalinga as spiritual guardians, the Ngo who maintain the site, and the Lubungas, who control access by visitors The site of Kasubi is characteristic of a feature common to many African religions, which hold that long-dead ancestors and important individuals are still present in the world, overseeing the fortunes of their clans and people as powerful spirits who also demand attention and care of their final resting places Shrines of durable stone are often raised to mark the sites and warn off passersby The task of maintaining these shrines and gravesites is too important to be left to untrained people