Dr Stuart Munro-Hay is an Egyptologist who, after excavating at the ancient Ethiopian royal capital city, Aksum, turned his attention to Ethiopian studies instead. He studied for his doctorate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, and was a Research Associate at the Centre for African Studies, University of Cambridge. Later he taught archaeology and ancient African history at the universities of Khartoum and Nairobi.

He is the author of many books on Aksum and its history, including three books on the ancient coinage of the Aksumite kings, a report about the British archaeological work at Aksum, Excavations at Aksum, 1989, and a general history , Aksum. An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity, 1991, which is now used as a textbook in those universities where Ethiopian studies are taught. He was associated with the exhibition of Ethiopian art in the United States which resulted in the book African Zion, edited by Roderick Grierson. The two authors have also published the best-selling book The Ark of the Covenant, 1999, and a second volume dealing specifically with the story of the Ark in Aksum, Ethiopia. A new work, RedSea, Blue Nile, a history of Ethiopia from early times until the end of the empire of Gondar, also published.