Akkele Guzay was a province in the interior of
EritreaEritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...
until 1996, when the newly independent government of Eritrea consolidated all provinces into
six regions||At the time of Independence in 1993 Eritrea was arranged into ten provinces. These provinces were similar to the nine provinces operating during the colonial period. In 1996, these were consolidated into six regions...
. Akkele Guzay's population predominantly consisted of followers of the
Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo ChurchThe Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church is an Oriental Orthodox church. Its autocephaly was recognised by Pope Shenouda III after Eritrea gained its independence in 1993.-Origins:...
. Traditionally being part of the
Kebessa (Highlands in Eritrea), it is the locality of the town of
DekemhareDekemhare is a town in Eritrea, lying south east of Asmara. Developed by the Italians as an industrial centre, it became known for its vineyards but was largely destroyed in the Eritrean War of Independence.-History:...
. The province is now mostly part of the Southern Red Sea and Debub (Southern) regions.
History
Akkele Guzay is one of the most ancient regions of Eritrea, with an inscriptional record going back to at least the
9th century BCThe 9th century BC started the first day of 900 BC and ended the last day of 801 BC.- Overview :The 9th century BC was a period of great changes in civilizations. In Africa, Carthage is founded by the Phoenicians...
, the earliest example of the script in the world. It was part of the Kingdom of D'mt that would evolve into the Kingdom of Aksum. Its name has been connected by some to the
Gaze of the
Monumentum AdulitanumThe Monumentum Adulitanum was an ancient Adulite inscription in Greek and Ge'ez depicting the military campaigns of an Adulite king. Though the inscription and the monument have never been located by archaeologists we know about it through the copying of the inscription by Cosmas Indicopleustes, a...
(which later medieval Greek notes in the margins associate with the Aksumite people). If the note regarding the Gaze is accurate, it would connect the name of Akkele Guzay to the Ag`azyan or Agazi (i.e.
Ge'ezGe'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the northern region of Ethiopia and southern Eritrea in the Horn of Africa...
speakers) of the kingdom of D'mt in Eritrea and northern
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
who later became the Tigray-Tigrinya and
TigreThe Tigre are an ethnic group residing in Eritrea and Sudan. They are a nomadic and pastoralist people, related to the Tigray-Tigrinya people of Eritrea and Ethiopia and to the Beja people of Sudan.-History:...
. This connection has been rejected by linguists in modern times, however, due to the lack of the middle
voiced pharyngeal fricativeThe voiced pharyngeal approximant or fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents it is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ?\....
in the
triliteralThe roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals"...
root, which is usually preserved in
TigrinyaTigrinya , also spelled Tigrigna, Tigrnia, Tigrina, Tigriña, less commonly Tigrinian, Tigrinyan, is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigrinya people in central Eritrea , where it is one of the two main languages of Eritrea, and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia , where it...
(the main language in Akkele Guzay). Instead, the name may be connected with the Agwezat clan conquered by the 4th century King
Ezana of AxumEzana of Axum , was ruler of the Axumite Kingdom located in present-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, Yemen, he himself employed the style "king of Saba and Salhen, Himyar and Dhu-Raydan"...
and the
Agaze (unvocalized 'GZ, referring either to a person or a group) of the
HawultiThe Hawulti is an Aksumite era obelisk located in Matara, Eritrea. It bears what has been described as the oldest known example of the old Ge'ez script .- Description :...
at
MataraMatara is an archaeological site in Eritrea. Situated a few kilometers south of Senafe, it was a major city in the Dʿmt and Aksumite kingdoms. Since Eritrean independence, the National Museum of Eritrea has petitioned the Ethiopian government to return artifacts removed from the site...
. Along with
AgameThe Agame is a former province in northern Ethiopia, now part of the Tigray Region. Its inhabitants include the Irob people, a region where tradition states the legendary Makeda was born and raised...
in Ethiopia, it was a main center of Aksumite culture (second only to Western Tigray, where the capital was located), with a distinct sub-culture that separated the two regions from that of Western Tigray (
ShireShire , also known as Inda Selassie , is a town in northern Ethiopia. The administrative center of the Mirabawi Zone of the Tigray region, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an altitude of 1953 meters above sea level...
,
AxumAxum or Aksum is a city in northern Ethiopia which was the original capital of the eponymous kingdom of Axum. Population 56,500 . Axum was a naval and trading power that ruled the region from ca. 400 BC into the 10th century...
,
YehaYeha is a town in northern Ethiopia, located in the Mehakelegnaw Zone of the Tigray Region. The Central Statistical Agency has not published an estimate for this village's 2005 population.- Archeology :...
), Central Eritrea (
SerayeThe Provinces of Eritrea existed between Eritrea's incorporation as a Colony of Italy until the conversion of the provinces into administrative regions....
,
HamasienHamasien was the name of an histoical province including and surrounding Asmara, now part of modern Eritrea. The region has been divided and distributed amongst the modern Maekel, Debub, Northern Red Sea, Gash-Barka and Anseba regions....
, and
AdulisAdulis or Aduli is an archeological site in the Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea, about 30 miles south of Massawa. It was the port of the Kingdom of Aksum, located on the coast of the Red Sea. Adulis Bay is named after the port...
), and frontier areas in northern Eritrea and Central Ethiopia. During medieval times, parts of southern Akkele Guzay were briefly part of the larger province of Bur in Ethiopia, which also included
AgameThe Agame is a former province in northern Ethiopia, now part of the Tigray Region. Its inhabitants include the Irob people, a region where tradition states the legendary Makeda was born and raised...
, some northeastern
AfarThe Afar , also known as the Danakil, are an ethnic group in the Horn of Africa. They primarily live in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and in northern Djibouti, although some also inhabit the southern point of Eritrea.-Early history:...
lowlands, and the
Buri PeninsulaThe Buri Peninsula extends from central Eritrea north into the Red Sea. To its west lies the Gulf of Zula. Varied in geography, it features mangroves and salt pans. It is known for its wildlife, including ostriches, hamadryas baboons and wild asses. Notable elevations include Mount Dulhi and...
; southern Akkele Guzay and Agame were part of "Upper" (La'ilay) Bur, while the lowlands were further distinguished as "Lower" (Tahtay).