Digital Map
This project uses a modern, interactive map to highlight the journey that both Queen Sheba and Bayna Likhim take. The map focuses on Bayna Likhim’s journey, highlighting how his journey acts as a “coming of age” for himself and for Ethiopian Christianity. This map illustrates the physical distance between each region, indicating how long these journeys would take. When understanding this narrative under a scope of a world we understand, one can understand how this journey is deciphered as extensive and epic. The map recognizes Mount Sinai as the origin of the Ark of the Covenant, then follows Banya Likhim’s journey from Aksum, to Gaza, to Jerusalem and back to Ethiopia. The map stresses how Bayna’s journey mirrors his mothers, starting with the fact that both journeys begin with curiosity about King Solomon. Queen Sheba and Banya Likhim both learn that their connection to their homeland triumphs over everything, even the connection they have with King Solomon. Mapping their travels made me aware of the parallels between Queen Sheba and her son, but also the parallels between Bayna Likhim and the Ark of the Covenant. In mapping these travels, I also became aware of how long it must have taken for both characters to travel to and from Israel. Understanding the magnitude of this distance helped me recognize why Queen Sheba tried to “frighten him so that he would not want to go see Solomon… “His country is far away, and the journey there is difficult, so don’t even think about going there!”” (Norton, 590). Alongside a fear of losing her heir, there was a fear that her son would not make this exhaustive journey. Being able to map the narrative of this story definitely provided insight on the similarities between each journey and the enormity of the journey itself.