Ethiopia Travel

Ethiopia is certainly one of the Africa's most unique countries in my opinion and here's why. First off, it's one of only two countries in the entire continent that was never colonized by Europeans. Secondly, Ethiopia is also one of the few African countries that boasts its own written language, is home to ancient ruins and medieval castles, and even has some high altitude mountains that top 4,000 meters with occasional snow. The mix of several religions and different tribes also gives Ethiopia a huge diversity of culture, and with most locals quite open minded, people quickly warm up to you and you'll have no troubles making new friends here.

Ethiopia Links	According to the stamps in my passports, Ethiopia is actually the first country I ever visited in Africa. After I missed my connection to Nairobi due to some extreme flight delays, I had an unplanned stay in Addis Ababa for a single night back in 1999. Of course I don't count this experience as a visit since I didn't do anything more than ride from the airport to the hotel and back. But I do remember looking out the window of my bus at the city and all its people going about their daily business. I felt teased by riding through the Addis Ababa and watching a country through a bus window without the possibility of getting out and experiencing anything. Fortunately with a little bit of patience, about 10 years later I finally returned to Ethiopia and was able to satisfy my decade old curiosity. Since it's no longer allowed to take photos of all the government buildings in Ethiopia, which includes the Imperial Palace, I figured the next best place to start in Addis Ababa photography wise was the Trinity Cathedral. The church was built after World War II, partially to celebrate Ethiopian's freedom from the Italian occupation. The Trinity Cathedral quickly became one of Ethiopia's most famous and important churches and so it has the honor of being first place on my web page.

	For nearly 35 years Emperor Haile Selassie ruled Ethiopia and worshiped at the Trinity Church. I always hear Ethiopian's talk about Emperor Selassie both on this trip and when I talk to Ethiopians back home in the United States. The way I hear most people talk about him it almost seems like he passed away only a few years ago, but in fact he lived from 1892 and was killed in 1975. The story regarding his alleged murder is written about further below, so for now just know that he is buried in the Trinity Church along with his Empress Menen Asfaw. Above are their tombs on the upper left and his throne on the right. The photos below of the stained glass and the cemetery are also part of Trinity Church complex. The church complex has several buildings including a small museum with some artifacts and traditional clothing over the past few centuries, including items that once belonged to the Emperor. I was unable to sneak any photos here from the museum, and when I asked the guard if I could take some anyway he politely told me no.

Above is the only photo of a government building I was able to take. This is the home of Ethiopia's government and functions like most country's parliament buildings. I drove past the palace several times and considered taking a photo but as there were armed guards I figured it was probably a bad idea. A famous place to visit in Addis Ababa where you can take all the photos you want is the piazza, Italian for plaza. This place seemed to be a legend as far as things to do in Addis Ababa go. I imagined it to be Ethiopia's Time Square, or their version of China's Tianamen Square. I had studied a map online on how to get from my guest house to the piazza and set out for a quick 15 minute walk curious about what wonders I might find there. I sadly discovered the piazza by asking someone for directions, and having that person explain I was standing in it. Quite disappointing, it actually didn't look much different to me than other parts of the city, I felt more like it was simply a place where busy roads intersected more than anything else. Perhaps I was missing something, but as the airline office was here and this turned out to be a good place to find a taxi or a local guide for the day, I came and went to the piazza almost daily and it never impressed me.

When I was visiting Addis Ababa, I stayed at this nice guest house that was somewhat close to the piazza. The street itself that the guest house was located on was pretty shabby looking as it was simply a muddy road lined with poor houses and poor shops seen above. Once inside the front gate though, you can see below that it's a nice place to visit and the prices were reasonable. I actually left a macro lens here and didn't realize it until I had left the country. Not only did the owner find it but he had it immediately mailed to me back home in the United States! I stayed here most of the time in Addis Ababa and enjoyed the people and the location. Of course there are plenty of upper class and more traditional hotels to stay at, and I even spent a single night at the Beer Garden which has its own brewery. Mostly European travelers and businessmen seemed to be at the Beer Garden while the guest house had people visiting the country for all sorts of reasons, including a German couple who had just adopted a son here. The two cats where also at the guest house and seem to be permanent residents here.


Of course the guest house was mostly for sleeping and planning, I didn't spend much time there and was usually out roaming the city. I came across these places above while on some random streets in Addis Ababa. A traditionally built structure on the left and a modern high rise on the right. The mud has been breaking away exposing the technique used to hold the structure walls together. What caught my eye for the building on the right was the fact that those scaffoldings are handmade out of nothing but wood and rope! Imagine trying that in the United States and getting caught by OSHA. I suppose the people who set this up are experienced and it's relatively safe, but it certainly looks intimidating to climb.

My first unintentional visit to Ethiopia in 1999 was due to the most horrible delays and flight experiences I have so far endured to this day. I was smart enough to not book my United States flight to Addis Ababa with Ethiopian Airlines who were the cause of my previous misadventures, but I did use them for a flight to neighboring Djibouti. They were nice enough to call my guest house and tell me that my flight was canceled and I should visit their office for new details. I later walked to the piazza only to find the whole neighborhood powered off and the airline office explaining to me they couldn't check their my flight status or call another office because both power and their phones were down. The next day I found out that my missed flight had never been canceled but only delayed, no real surprise there... Anyway, point is I was fortunate enough to have my flight cancelation take place on March 2nd. At first I was pretty pissed off, but since I was going to be spending another day in Addis Ababa I decided to once again aimlessly roam the city like I normally do. I found that many squares and churches were decorated with Ethiopian flags and tons of people were out walking around. A few street corners had some Christian preachers giving speeches to small crowds, and other places had much larger ceremonies and celebrations taking place. After struggling to find a local who spoke English, I came to understand that March 2nd is a holiday similar to independence day. I say similar because Ethiopia was never colonized by Europeans, but in the late 1800s the Italians did try and invaded the country. The battle of Adwa occurred on March 1st 1896, and the decisive victory by Ethiopia kept the country independent. Above is a photo of St. George's church where a Christian ceremony was taking place. Below is a photo taken outside the church where a preacher has a large crowd in front of him. As for the tortoise... I can offer no logical explanation. There were several of them roaming the church grounds here but no where else in Addis Ababa.


What I loved about traveling in Ethiopia was the traditional clothing and religious people I'd meet. I felt these men above in traditional clothing probably haven't changed much as far as their beliefs and clothing go over the past few centuries. The staff the man is carrying on the left was pretty common with older males and from what I understand it bears some spiritual power. Ethiopia is mostly Christian, but has a very large Muslim population and one of the largest populations of Jews in Africa.

Ethiopia has had an unfortunate past when it comes to its previous rulers, one of the worst being the Soviet backed Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. After rising to power in the 1970s, Mengitsu was able to imprison Ethiopia's emperor Selassie and quickly took power over both the military and the country's politicians who were members of other parties. His brutal rule and its effects on the population began to be known as the Red Terror, and one of the worst tragedies that occurred was when he systematically killed his political opponents. This was known as the Derg massacre and this occurrence was just one of many actions Mengitsu did that lead to his genocide charges in 2007. The Derg massacre killed 58 opponents within his own party that included several high ranking officials and some of Ethiopia's brightest and most educated people. The Derg massacre resulted in the deaths of two former prime ministers and several top military leaders. They were buried in a mass grave which is now a memorial seen on the left. Below are photos of some of those who lost their lives that day.


Moving on to less depressing things, a good place to relax and enjoy yourself in Ethiopia is one of their traditional coffee houses. Two traditional drinks I tried in Ethiopia was Tej and of course their coffee. On the left, some guy I met on the street was the one who took me to try Tej; an alcoholic drink made out of honey. It had a unique taste and was fairly strong so I asked him what the alcohol content was. He explained that it was different each time, which I would imagine could make having a few drinks kind of dangerous. On the right is myself trying Ethiopian coffee in a traditional coffee house. Many people in the coffee house also smoke and there is a small bar available as well for those who want to grab a beer or drink liquor.
Another tradition to try in Ethiopia is a khat bar. Khat is popular in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia and is a leaf that you chew that gives you energy. I see it as this regions version of South America's cocoa leaves. On the right is a khat bar before more people arrived, above is a photo khat itself. It's extremely popular in parts of east Africa, and khat lounges are probably as common as bars are in the United States or in Europe. The effects are said to be like high doses of caffeine, which is why I imagine it to be similar to South America's cocoa leaves.

People usually don't do the khat alone, but also have drinks, shisha or even coffee with it as well. On the right is a guy smoking shisha, the lady on the left is prepares traditional Ethiopian coffee in another lounge. Mashing the coffee beans, boiling water at 7,000 feet, and other steps she took made this a very long process, taking over an hour. This lounge was small but was nicely decorated and also was playing reggae music so it had a relaxing atmosphere and was a nice experience.

Addis Ababa has one of the most efficient public transportation systems I've ever used. If you walk down any main road you'll be passed by a mini bus every minute or so. Unlike regular city buses, these don't have any confusing routes or schedules to follow, they simply go up and down the same street. You can jump on and pay 1 birr which was less than an American dime at the time of my visit and jump off whenever you'd like to. These actually don't run the full length on some of the longer busier streets, so sometimes they'll stop to make a U-turn in which case you can just pay another birr and get a new minibus to continue on.

One of Addis Ababa's most interesting places to visit is it's Mercato, Italian for market, unlike the piazza, this place met my expectations. Covering several square kilometers, it is considered to be all of Africa's largest open air market and sells everything from live stock, to electronics and food. If I put one picture for every business that operated in the mercato on this web page, then I'd have 7,100 pictures! To further put things into perspective, the mercato employs about 13,000 people.
The food item on the left is used to make some of Ethiopia's most important local cuisines. I forgot the name of it, so I'll have to research it later, but it was for sale all over the market. Above is what the same food item looks like after it is packaged and ready to be sold in whole. Ethiopia is famous for their great food, mostly the traditional food Injera.


	A lot of animal products are sold in the mercato as well, I even saw cow feces for sale that can be used to burn as fuel. That might sound strange at first, but I know Americans did the same in the wild west and called them buffalo chips. The chickens on the left are being sold along with their eggs that are kept in the back. I think someone owns the donkey and uses it just to transport goods rather than it being for sale, apparently something in the market made the donkey horny.

	When it was time to get out of Addis Ababa, I visited the far north of Ethiopia, actually only 30 miles south of Eritrean border. Here rests the ancient city of Axum. Once the capital of a large empire that spanned as far east as Arabia and as far north as Sudan. Axum has become a small town on Ethiopia's map, but it is still the country's holiest city. As a matter of fact, Axum has such strong Christian roots that non-Christian religions are forbidden from building any place of worship within 30 km of the city. Above are two random photos from Axum, an enormous tree and a man leading a small pack of camels. Below are two wildlife shots I saw in the area. I've seen plenty of lizards in Ethiopia, but the blue tail got my attention, I also wasn't expecting to see a squirrel here in Africa.


Axum became an important city around 1000BC, when Queen Sheba ruled the area. According to the bible, Queen Sheba traveled to Israel and met King Solomon, where they conceived a child who would later grow up to become King Menelik, King of the Axumite kingdom. Before Menelik was king at the age of 17 years, he traveled to Israel himself to meet his father King Solomon where his father asked him to become the next King of Israel. Instead, Menelik returned to Ethiopia and ruled here in 950 BC.
Here you can see a replica of Queen Sheba's palace. Immediately across the street from Sheba's palace are the ruins of an ancient cemetery seen at the right. Supposedly underneath a large fallen obelisk is the Queen's tomb.
The ancient Axumite kingdom that followed built several obelisks in Axum. The 21 meter or 70 foot obelisk on the left is known as King Ezana's Stele. In the 1,700 years since their erection, several obelisks have since fallen such as the Great Stele above. Ezana's Stele remains the best preserved and is still one solid piece of stone.

I had read about the obelisks before online and even seen them on TV once, but I never realized they had large burial chambers directly underneath them. These photos above were discovered only a few decades ago by archaeologists. Here they found the remains of previous Kings, along with coins, gold, and other treasures that were left along with the dead, similar to what the Egyptians did with their pharaohs.

King Ezana was recognized as the first Christian monarch of Axum, this marked the start of Christianity for city city, and all Kings that followed maintained their faith. The best known King of Axum named Kaleb ruled in the 6th century, 200 years after King Ezana. Above is King Kaleb's burial chamber that is reached by taking some dark stone steps deep underground. He was believed to be buried in the far left sarcophagus along with his wife. Ethiopia has three major versions of Christian crosses throughout its history, notice the cross above that was used in the 6th century looks more like a plus than the traditional Christian cross seen in modern times.

Axum's most religious site is a complex of churches which includes the original and the new Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. The small church on the upper right is called The Chapel of the Tablet, and is where many believe the original Ark of the Covenant to be held. According to their history, after King Menelik had visited King Solomon in Israel, King Solomon had requested Menelik to stay and rule Israel after him. Having already promised Queen Sheba that he would return to Axum to rule, King Solomon allowed Menelik to leave Israel and sent the Ark of the Covenant with him. Today a single monk guards it for life. He rarely is seen outside of the Chapel of the Tablet, and even in those rare moments he never leaves the fenced area and will continue guarding like this until his death.. The church on the left side is the original church believed to have been built during the time of Ezana.

No one is allowed to enter the church with the Ark of the Covenant in it, but I was allowed to enter the original church and was shown some of the religious paintings that have somehow retained their color over the centuries. They are covered by enormous curtains when there is no service in order to protect them from the sun. Above is a story from the bible, about how a man tamed a lion who had killed one of his donkeys.

Above is the new Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. In the 1950s, the new modern church was built by Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie. I visited during the month of March, so many religious ceremonies were taking place due to lent. Many people spend all day at the church, and when it's time for them to go home they hold a service and walk around the church three times and then leave until the next day.


According to some members of the church, I was lucky to be visiting this time of year because the bible above is normally stored in a museum. Since they were using it during their lent service, they allowed me to look at it and see a few pages. The bible is claimed to be over a thousand years old; it is definitely one of the oldest and still in use books on earth.

Leaving the dry lands of Axum, I headed out to Gondar and passed by some of Ethiopia's most beautiful scenery known as the Semien mountains. These mountains are some of the highest in Africa, with Ras Dejen being the country's highest point at 4,533 meters or 14,872 feet. The dramatic and rugged scenery of the mountains provides a haven for wild life, including some endemic animals such as the Ethiopian wolf and the Walia Ibex. I wish I had been able to do a week long camping trip in the outdoors here or even hike to the top of Ras Dejen. Some photos of Ethiopian wildlife and their outdoors even seem to resemble parts of North American decidious forests.


Many parts of Ethiopian's mountains have been turned into farms. You can see the ridged lines along the mountain on the left which is where crops are being grown and a fire on the right help makes fertile soil for a new generation. Sadly, most of Ethiopia used to be covered by dense forests but now only 3% of their woodland remains. There is an effort underway to restore many of the forests, and such a project seems very challenging so I'm not too optimistic. Hopefully it will be successful, but until then most of the country will remain bare, a similar story to Haiti.

During my road trip I passed by many small towns such as these two above. Most towns were quiet and seemed like they were going through the ordinary village life. I did get a photo of a dust tornado on the right though that had caught the attention of several little kids. If you ever pass through small villages in Ethiopia and have empty plastic bottles, the kids here will love you for them. Often when I came to a stop somewhere kids would run up to the car and ask for any empty bottles and would run away screaming with joy if I had one to give away.

Also while driving in the north, I passed by several abandoned tanks from Ethiopia's wars. I'm not sure the era of these tanks, but I'd assume the tank on the left was from Ethiopia's second Ita lo-Abyssinian War which occurred in the 1930s. Italy won this battle and occupied a part of Ethiopia but never completely conquered or colonized the entire country. This war is also remembered because Italy used chemical weapons during the battles, including mustard gas and phosgene. The tank on the right is more modern, perhaps from the more recent war with Eritrea.

Back in 1635, the Emperor Fasilides founded the city of Gondar and ruled from the Fasil Ghebbi complex he had built for him. The complex included his own castle, and after he passed away the new emperors that took his place felt the need to add their own castles and expand Fasil Ghebbi. For nearly 200 years, the fortress complex served as the home for Ethiopia's emperors with Gondar as the country's capital. Above are two of the main castles, with the largest and the original castle built by Fasilides on the left.

Above are photos from the insides of some of the castles that are in better condition and have also been decorated. These areas have been restored to the way they once were, mostly by adding new wooden floors and the repaired ceiling seen on the left. During World War II the Italians occuppied this castle while Britain was allied with Ethiopia. The British felt that the Italian use of the castle as a defense structure made it a legitimate military target, and so Gonder castle ended up being bombed by British aircraft resulting in partial destruction of many parts of the fortress complex.

Other parts that seemed to be restored are the castle courtyards with their horse stables on the left and doors leading to the main banquet hall on the right. Some parts of the castles were never restored and are still in ruins, or maybe there hasn't been enough funding to recover these parts of the castle yet. I did worry about being hit in the head by falling bricks but while walking under some destroyed ceilings and along beat up walls but everything stayed in place during my visit. Below are some examples of the detoriating parts of the castle.


These two photos above are from Emperor Fasilides famous bath palace. Emperor Fasilides is viewed with mixed feelings today, as he attempted to convert the entire population of his city from Jesuits to Catholics. For the Jesuits that refused, it was estimated that up to 30,000 were killed by Fasilides and those who lived I would imagine did not have comfortable lives. Most of the Catholics who did convert were baptized here. This bath is still in use today, and holds one of Ethiopia's most important ceremonies, the Tikmat. Unfortunately when I visited they were doing some type of maintenance on the center structure and had to drain the bath out. Normally when the bath is filled with water the center structure becomes an island and is the precise location of where people are baptized while crowds line the outer perimeter.

One last important place to visit in Gondar for me was another church by the name of Trinity. Honestly I felt like I had been to so many churches during my time in Ethiopia that I almost skipped this one but was glad I didn't. This church was built in the 18th century, with a unique design unlike most other churches in the country. The church is mostly constructed out of brick and bamboo, with small columns around the main structure. The interior is covered with paintings like the other churches in the country, but there is one painting inside that is insulting to an other religion so the church has a lot of controversy. None of the paintings here are restored so they are in their original condition and have retained their colors over the centuries. The photo on the right is of the ceiling; depicting angels.

I normally save all my wildlife photos for the end of the page, but since I didn't do any real excursions into the wilderness of Ethiopia I can only share some photos of birds I came across during my trip. The first bird on the upper left is the famous love bird, popular pets in the United States and probably Europe as well. As a kid I actually had a pair until they were able to escape, though I'm not sure if they made it back to Ethiopia. They are called love birds because a pair will 'marry' each other and remain monogamous for life. This species however is the black winged love bird, endemic to only Ethiopia and Eritrea. On the right is a not so attractive speckled pigeon.


	The vulture and the robin above are both birds that are also common where I live in Virginia, so they weren't all that interesting to me. The vultures I have seen in Virginia at home are called turkey vultures and are only about a third of the size of the enormous vulture on the left. The white collared pigeon on the lower left is endemic to this region of the world, and even though it's just a pigeon I always like seeing new species of animals. Some of these pigeons here in Ethiopia made noises that I had confused with monkeys. I never found out the species of the bird to the lower right.

Jodes from Ethiopia: I can say that you are a wonderful explorer, journalist and photographer above all! I like what you had done about the other countries, and some of your Ethiopian works. But, I am afraid that your wonders and culture shocks may sometimes biasing you against the truth (the majority reality).

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