3450 ETHIOPIA (Amhara) - Tomb of Adam - part of Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela (UNESCO WHS)

Impressive in its simplicity, the Tomb of Adam is a huge square block of stone stands in a deep trench in front of the western face of Biete Golgotha Mikael (House of Golgotha Mikael). The block has been hollowed out, the ground floor serving as the western entrance to the first group of churches. The upper floor houses a hermit's cell. Again it is a cross that is the only decoration of this "tomb ". The large opening in the eastern wall provides light for the cell and has the shape of a harmonious croix pattee with flat-pitched finials.

3434 ETHIOPIA (Harari) - Harar Jugol, the Fortified Historic Town (UNESCO WHS)

3434 Duke's Gate in Harar Jugol

The walled city Harar functioned as the capital of the Harari Kingdom from 1520 to 1568, became an independent emirate in the 17th century and was integrated into Ethiopian Empire in 1887. From the late 16th century to the 19th century Harar was an important trade centre between the coast and the interior highlands and a location for Islamic learning. The impact of African and Islamic traditions on the development of the town's building types and urban layout make for its particular character and uniqueness.

3431 ETHIOPIA (Oromia / Afar) - Lower Valley of the Awash (UNESCO WHS)

The course of the Awash River is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia and empties into a chain of interconnected lakes that begin with Lake Gargori and end with Lake Abbe on the border with Djibouti. The Awash valley contains one of the most important groupings of palaeontological sites on the African continent. The remains found at the site, the oldest of which date back at least 4 million years, provide evidence of human evolution which has modified our conception of the history of humankind.

3302 ETHIOPIA (Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region) - Gurage Landscape

Gurage is a zone named for the Gurage people, an Habesha Ethiosemitic-speaking ethnic group whose homeland lies in this zone. Most parts of this area are heavily eroded, which required farmers to protect their enset fields with stone and soil bunds. During the 1930s, about 20% of the land in Gurage was covered with natural forests, which has since been almost completely cut down. According to the historian Paul B. Henze, the Gurage people origins are explained by traditions of a military expedition to the south during the last years of the Kingdom of Aksum, which left military colonies that eventually became isolated from both northern Ethiopia and each other.

3208 ETHIOPIA (Oromia) - Mount Ziqualla

Located at 85km East from Addis Ababa, Mount Ziqualla is an extinct volcano rising to 600m above sea level and dominating the western part of the Rift Valley. The crater harbours a lake about 100m below the rim. All outer slopes of the volcano are steep and often dissected by deep gullies. The natural vegetation, mainly forest, only remains inside the crater and in a few deep gullies below the summit, however in former times the whole mountains would have been mainly forested.

2879 ETHIOPIA (Amhara) - Simien National Park (UNESCO WHS)

2879 Walia ibex in Simien National Park

Simien National Park covers the Simien Mountains and includes Ras Dashan, the highest point in Ethiopia. It is a spectacular landscape, where massive erosion over millions of years has created jagged mountain peaks, deep valleys and sharp precipices dropping some 1,500 m. The park is of global significance for biodiversity conservation because it is home to globally threatened species, including the iconic Walia ibex, the Gelada baboon and the Ethiopian wolf.

2873 ETHIOPIA (Oromia) - Holqa Sof Omar: Natural and Cultural Heritage (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

With a 16km length, Sof Omar Caves is one of the most spectacular and extensive underground caverns in the world. It is situated to the east of Robe, in the Bale Zone, through which the Weyib River (Gestro River) flows. Here the river vanishes into this giant underground world with its arched portals, high eroded ceilings, and deep, vaulted echoing chambers. The approach to the caves is made through the tiny village of Sof Omar, perched on the cliffs above the Weib River.

2720 ETHIOPIA (Tigray) - Aksum (UNESCO WHS)

Situated in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, Aksum symbolizes the wealth and importance of the civilization of the ancient Aksumite Kingdom, which lasted from the 1st to the 8th centuries AD. The kingdom was at the crossroads of the three continents: Africa, Arabia and the Greco-Roman World, and was the most powerful state between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia. In command of the ivory trade with Sudan, its fleets controlled the Red Sea trade through the port of Adulis and the inland routes of north eastern Africa.

2709 ETHIOPIA - Ge'ez script

In terms of writing systems, Ethiopia's principal orthography is the Ge'ez script, also known as Ethiopic, considered one of the oldest alphabets still in use in the world. Employed as an abugida (syllable alphabet) for several languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea languages, it first came into usage in the 6th and 5th centuries BC as an abjad to transcribe the Semitic Ge'ez language. Ge'ez now serves as the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

2383 ETHIOPIA (Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region) - Tiya (UNESCO WHS)

Located in central Ethiopia, in the Gurage Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region, the town of Tiya is best known for its archaeological site. It contains 36 monuments, including 32 carved stelae covered with symbols, most of which are difficult to decipher. They are the remains of an ancient Ethiopian culture whose age has not yet been precisely determined. Surface finds at Tiya contained a selection of Middle Stone Age tools (tranchet blows) that are technologically similar to tools found at Gademotta and Kulkuletti.

2295 ETHIOPIA (Amhara) - Blue Nile Falls

Generally regarded as the longest river in the world, Nile is one of the most famous of the rivers, mainly because it provided a crucial role in the development of Egyptian civilization. It has two major tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile, which meet near the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and primary stream of the Nile itself, evern if the Blue Nile is the source of most of the water and silt.

2142 ETHIOPIA (Addis Ababa) - Saint Raguel Church at Entoto

Mount Entoto, the highest peak (3,200m) overlooking the city of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, is a historical place where Emperor Menelik II resided and built his palace, when he came from Ankober and founded Addis Ababa. It is considered a sacred mountain and has many monasteries, being also the location of a number of celebrated churches, including Saint Raguel and Saint Mary.

0139, 0937, 2106 ETHIOPIA (Amhara) - Fasil Ghebbi, Gondar Region (UNESCO WHS)

0937 Fasil Ghebbi - The curtain wall

Posted on 07.03.2012, 02.01.2014, and 07.12.2015
Fasil Ghebbi is a fortress-enclosure in Gondar, a city nicknamed The Camelot of Africa and located in southwest of the Simien Mountains, on the northern plateau of Tana, at 2,133m above sea level. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was the residence of the Ethiopian emperor Fasilides and his successors. Surrounded by a 900m-long wall, the city contains palaces, churches, monasteries and unique public and private buildings marked by Hindu, Nubian and Arab influences, subsequently transformed by the Baroque style brought to Gondar by the Jesuit missionaries. The complex is enclosed by a curtain wall with twelve gates.

0139 Fasil Ghebbi - The ceremonial
bathing place of emperor Fasilades

 

The main castle of the complex, a three sections (two stories) castle with square plan, surrounded by later fortresses, was built in the late 1630s and early 1640s on the orders of Fasilides, and is the most magnificent and elegant building of Gondar. With its huge towers and looming battlemented walls, it resembles a piece of medieval Europe transposed to Ethiopia. It seams that Fasilides was also responsible for the building of a number of other structures, probably the oldest being the Enqulal Gemb (Egg Castle), so named on account of its egg-shaped domed roof.

2106 Fasil Ghebbi - Debre Berhan Selassie Church
- The ceilling with rows of winged cherubs

The Bathing Palace is a two-storeyed battlemented structure situated within and on one side of a rectangular pool, which is filled with water only during Timkat (baptism), the Ethiopian Orthodox celebration of Epiphany, celebrated on the 10th day of Terr following the Ethiopian calendar. The bathing pavilion itself stands on pier arches, and contains several rooms reached by a stone bridge. During the ceremonies, the tabot, a model of the Ark of the Covenant, is wrapped in rich cloth and born in procession. The Divine Liturgy is celebrated on around 2 a.m. near the pool, and the water is blessed and sprinkled on the participants, symbolizing the baptism. By noon the tabot is escorted back to its church in colorful procession.

1842 ETHIOPIA (Amhara) - Bete Ghiorgis (House of Saint George) - part of Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela (UNESCO WHS)

Located in the southwest of the village of Lalibela, on a sloping rock terrace, Bete Ghiorgis (House of St. George) is one of the best known churches of the UNESCO WHS named Rock-Hewn Churches. Isolated from the others 10 churches hewn from monolithic blocks, is connected with them by a system of trenches. In its deep pit with perpendicular walls it can only be reached through a tunnel which is entered from some distance away through a trench. Small round caves and chambers have been found in the walls of the courtyard graves for pious pilgrims and monks.

1559 ETHIOPIA (Dire Dawa) - A market in Dire Dawa

Dire Dawa is one of two chartered cities in Ethiopia (the other being the capital, Addis Ababa), and also the second city in population (more then 340,000 inhabitants). It lies in the eastern part of the country, on the Dechatu Wadi (seasonal river), at the foot of a ring of cliffs that has been described as "somewhat like a cluster of tea-leaves in the bottom of a slop-basin." As in the rest of Ethiopia, the population of this city is highly diverse, the main ethnic groups in the region being the Oromo (45%), Somali (42%), Amhara (9%), Gurage (3%), and Harari (1%). The religion with the most believers in Dire Dawa is Muslim with 70.8%, 25.71% are Ethiopian Orthodox, 2.81% Protestant, and 0.43% Catholic. The postcard depicts this diversity.

ETHIOPIA (Amhara) - Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela (UNESCO WHS)

In a mountainous region in the heart of Ethiopia (the second country which adopted Christianity, after Armenia, in the first half of the 4th century), at Lalibela, 11 medieval monolithic churches were carved out of rock. Actually, Lalibela flourished after the decline of the Aksum Empire, and is one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, second only to Aksum, and a center of pilgrimage. Unlike Aksum, the population of Lalibela is almost completely Ethiopian Orthodox Christian.