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Queen of Sheba: Ethiopia's Biblical Matriarch
Description
She's one of history's most tantalizing figures: the Queen of Sheba, who appears in just a few lines of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. But in Ethiopia, she's no footnote — she's the mother of a dynasty. This episode traces her legend from the biblical account to the epic 14th-century text the Kebra Nagast, which transforms her into the founder of Ethiopia's Solomonic line. We explore how a brief encounter with King Solomon became a national origin story, why Ethiopian emperors claimed descent from her son Menelik I, and how the Ark of the Covenant supposedly came to Axum through this lineage. We also look at archaeological clues — from ancient incense routes to South Arabian inscriptions — and the debate over whether Sheba was a real queen or a literary invention. Join Lucas and Luna as they unravel the layers of myth, faith, and politics around one of Africa's most powerful legendary women.