Destinations
Ethiopia is an unending stream of awe inspiring architecture, majestic landscapes, vibrant cities and breathtaking beauty.
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Below are some of these destinations to which we are thrilled to organise visits.
Addis Ababa
The name of this sprawling capital city means 'New Flower.' Founded by Emperor Menelik in 1887 and with a population of about 4 million, Addis Ababa is Africa's diplomatic capital with the headquarters for the Organization of African Unity located here. Impressive monuments of colonial architecture are scattered among stretches of sun-bleached shacks.
Drive through "Mercato" the largest open market on the continent. Make interesting stops that include the National Museum, the Ethnological Museum and the Ba'ata Church known as Menelik Mausoleum.
Enjoy souvenir shopping and visits to special art galleries. Hotel accommodation ranges from tourist class to luxury collection and varieties of restaurants serve delectable dishes from around the world.
If international arrival into Addis is on an evening flight, then that first overnight must be spent in town.
Axum
Earlier written as Aksum, was the first major empire to rise out of Ethiopia.
The 10th century BC Axumite kingdom was at one time considered together with Persia, China and Rome as one of the great powers of the world.
It was an important commercial centre, trading with Egypt, Greece, Rome, India, Arabia and Persia. Axum began to decline in the seventh century AD. The Axum landscape is marked with mysterious monuments and magnificent ancient structures and ruins.
The oldest and most esteemed of the treasures are the 3,000-year-old age steles that were sculpted from single pieces of granite rock curved to resemble storied buildings. The tallest obelisk, which is over 23 m tall, was looted from Ethiopia and erected in Rome by Mussolini's fascist troops during their brief occupation of the country from 1936 to 1941.
After decades of debate and controversy, the monolith was finally returned to Axum in April 2005. The relic is now Ethiopia's greatest historic attraction.
At the churches and monasteries of Axum, history comes to life as the icons and historic crowns of ancient emperors tell the story.
The most outstanding church is the 16th century Cathedral of St. Mary of Zion, considered to be Ethiopia's holiest site and believed to house the original Ark of the Covenant.
While in Axum, other historical sites not to be missed are: the royal graves of King Kaleb and Gabre Meskel, the 54 room ruins of a palace that supposedly housed the Queen of Sheba, and her legendary Bath. Also look out for the still legible early 4th century stone-pillar inscription, made on account of King Ezana's victory over rebellious tribes.
Lalibela
Lalibela, a medieval settlement in the region of Wello, is the site of eleven rock-hewn churches believed to have been built in the late 12th or early 13th century by King Lalibela. It is reported that King Lalibela's prodigious church building was his effort to recreate Jerusalem.
Muslims occupied Jerusalem at the time and pilgrimage to Jerusalem, for Ethiopian Christians was difficult. The city was initially known as Roha, but was later renamed after King Lalibela, the most outstanding of the Zagwes'.
Lalibela is a holy shrine city of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and it is the best place to experience the most colourful Ethiopian church festivals especially during Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas (Genna), and Epiphany (Timket).
Gondar
Gondar was once the capital of Ethiopia, its prominence beginning with the reign of Emperor Fasilades in 1632 and ending with the fall of Tewodros in 1868.
The city's unique imperial precinct contains a dozen castles and fortress-like battlements built by various Emperors during this 236 year period.
By European standards the Gondar castles may not be elaborate, but their very presence in Africa makes them a rare and imposing sight & some historians call them "The Camelot of Africa."
The Debre Birhan Selassie Church in Gondar town is famous for its "angel head frescoes" that decorate the entire ceiling.
A day excursion by car can be made to visit the magnificently scenic Simien Mountains National Park.
Simien Mountains
National Park
The Simien Mountains National Park was officially established in 1969 with the objective of preserving its unique Afro-alpine ecosystems and high number of endemic species of birds and wildlife that include the Ethiopian wolf, gelada baboon and walia ibex.
Dubbed as the "Roof of Africa," Ethiopia has the highest elevated portion of landmass on the continent. The Simien Mountains are part of this landmass with unparalleled scenery. It was declared as a World Heritage site by UNESO in 1978. The region includes many summits above 4,000 mts and culminates in the highest point in Ethiopia and fourth highest peak in Africa, Mount Ras Dashen (4,620 mts.)
Its dramatic topography is the result of the erosion of basalt lavas that have been calculated to be nearly 3,000 mts thick. It is an ideal place for nature lovers and trekkers. The rainy season runs from June to September so travelling can be difficult during this period. November and December are the coldest months when the temperature is likely to go below freezing.
Quote taken from Rosita Forbes, 1925 "From Red Sea to Blue Nile - A thousand Miles of Ethiopia."
"The most marvelous of all Abyssinian landscapes opened before us, as we looked across a gorge that was clouded amethyst to the peaks of Simien. A Thousand, Thousand years ago, when the old god reigned in Ethiopia, they must have played chess with those stupendous crags, for we saw bishops' miters cut in lapis lazuli, castles with the ruby of approaching sunset on their turrets, an emerald knight where the forest crept up on to the rock and, far away, a king, crowned with sapphire and guarded by a row of pawns."
Bahir Dar & Lake Tana
Bahir Dar is the jumping-off point for visits to the spectacular scenic and historic attractions of Lake Tana - Ethiopia's giant inland sea.
In their funerary texts, the Pharaohs referred to it as "Lake Karou of the Country of the Happy."
In the Middle Ages, churches sought refuge on the islands of Lake Tana and due in part to the difficult access are to this day rich in Ethiopian illuminated manuscripts, religious paintings and other treasures.
The majestic Blue Nile Falls named "Tis Issat" in the Amharic language, which descriptively translates as "Smoke of Fire" is found outside Bahir Dar.
The Falls plunge over a sheer 45 mts precipice that is 400 mts wide. Sought in vain by Egyptians, Persians, Greeks and Romans, the first European to discover the source of the Nile was Portuguese Father Paez.
150 years later in 1770, Scottish Traveler James Bruce described it as "One of the most stupendous sights of the Creation."
Harar
Harar is an amazing and amusing place to tour.
This early 16th century eastern Ethiopian city was once an important trade centre and is famous for its ancient Arabic structures, great city walls, and the French poet Rimbaud's house.
Harar is an Islamic centre with at least 99 mosques is considered to be the fourth holiest Islamic city, after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.
If the evening finds you in Harar, you may witness a most bizarre spectacle courtesy of the so-called Hyena Men. With wild howls, these fearless men summon hyenas from the hills. They then get the ruthless scavengers to snatch pieces of meat from their hands or even their mouths!
The whole setting of medieval walls tightly embracing the ancient city, its rich and colorful marketplace, towering and majestic mountains and refreshingly cool climate, infuses Harar with an air of excitement, making it a memorable place to visit.
Arba Minch & Nech Sar National Park
In the experience of many visitors, Nech Sar National Park ranks as one of the most beautiful places in the tropical savannahs.
It is a small park of 514 sq kms located on an outstandingly scenic part of the Rift Valley floor.
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Sandwiched between two lakes and bordered in the east by the Amaro Hills, the central plains of this park seem from a distance to be very pale, thus giving rise to the name Nech Sar or "white grass."
The park is home to Burchell's zebra, Grant's gazelle and the endemic Swayne's hartebeest.
The two adjoining lakes - Chamo and Abaya, support a considerable population of Nile crocodile and concentration of Nile perch.
Bale Mountains National Park
Ranging in altitude between 1,500-4,377 meters with a total area of 2,400 sq kms, the Bale Mountains National Park forms Ethiopia's second largest mountain complex.
It is also Africa's most extensive Afro-alpine habitat.
A visit is rewarded by the opportunity to site many endemic mammals and birds including the rarest canid in the world - the Ethiopian wolf.
It is quite memorable to be driving on the highest road in Africa and then descend down to one of Ethiopia's most remarkable forested reserves - the Harenna Forest.
Gambella & Tum
Gambella, with a brief British influence, was once a busy commercial port between Ethiopia and the Sudan.
The main attractions are its National Park and ethnic groups.
The park contains lowland animals seen nowhere else in Ethiopia: Roan antelope, white-eared Kob and the rare Nile lechwe.
The two main people groups are the Anuak and Nuer. They are distinctly different from the Semetic and Cushitic speakers who dominate the rest of the country.
Further to the South and living on the western bank of River Omo are the Surma or Suri people who number about 40,000. Like the Mursi, they are known for their stick-fighting and the women with their lip-plates. In her early twenties an unmarried woman's lip will be pierced and then progressively stretched over the period of a year. A clay disc indented like a pulley wheel is squeezed into the hole in the lip. As it stretches, ever-larger discs are forced in until the lip become so long; it can sometimes be pulled right over the owner's head. The larger the lip-plate gets, the greater the bride price.
Hadar
160kms to the east of the country, in the Afar region, the banks of Awash River make an important pre historic and archaeological site.
This is where, Hadar, the hominid 'Lucy' (believed to be the missing link between man and his ape ancestors) was excavated. Recent findings in neighbouring Kenya have however come to challenge this position.
The local name of the hominid is Dinknesh -meaning "thou art wonderful".
Lucy is the fun name given to her by the scientists whom were listening the very famous Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" at the time when they found her.
This archaeological gem today rests at the Ethiopian National Museum in Addis Ababa. Many other archaeological treasures have also been found in the area.
Omo Valley
The lower Omo valley is home to a remarkable mix of small, but interesting and contrasting ethnic groups, literally fantastic. Overland cruise from the green, urban highlands in to the low-lying plains of Omo valley feels like a journey not merely through space but also through time, as one overland the vast and thinly populated badlands that divides the mountainous centre of Ethiopia from its counterpart in Kenya.
Omo valley is as close as one can come and overland to an Africa untouched land, the culturally diverse, immaculately colorful and defiantly traditionalist aggro pastoralist, who inhabit the region seem to occupy a physical and psychic landscape little different to that of their nomadic ancestor, this is Africa as it once was, or as some might still imagine it to be, and its mere existence is at once wonderful and scarcely incredible.
Omo valley, the cultural Garden of Eden and a living museum, four of Africa’s major linguistic groups are represented, including the so called Omotic speakers, a language group endemic to lower Omo valley. All in all, depending on where one draws the lines, as two dozen of different tribes occupy Omo valley, some numbering tens of thousands and others no more than two thousand, each of them culturally unique.
The most renowned of Nilo-Saharan language speakers are the Mursi and Surma, famed for practicing of inserting large clay plates in their lower lips of the women. The other important groups of the of Omo valley include the Hamer, Nyangatom, Karo, Dasenech, Arbore, Benna, Ari and Bodi, whose cultures and quirks of adornment, body scaring and painting.
Omo valley is there to show you the colorful and dramatic traditional ceremonies including the “Bull Jumping” the ceremony take place by the Hamer youngster the taste to pass from the childhood to early adulthood and getting a chance to choose the right girl for marriage, the colorful Hamer’s youngsters traditional dance called “Evangadi” as well as the ritual take place by the Surma and Mursi tribe called “Donga”, stick fight in which two contestants painted in white chalk paste pummel each other violently with heavily two meter long poles, as the Hamer do the bull jumping, are fascinating and admirable to see. The overland cruise along the rift valley region south to the Omo valley offers an opportunity to cross and explore the untouched and real Africa topography along with its colorful inhabitants, unique way of life and vibrant weekly tribal market days.
Tigray Rock Churches
The magnificent rock hewn churches of Tigrai, most of them curved into relatively inaccessible cliff faces, obscure as the churches carved into the sandstone cliffs of Tigrai. Practically unknown to other Ethiopians, along the outside world, before 1966, these rock edifices have been described by the British academic Ivy Pearce as “the greatest of the historical – cultural heritages of the Ethiopian people”.
Most of these architectural gems remain in active use today, several house paintings and other sacred medieval artifacts, and even one of them is imbued with an aura of spirituality that seeps from the very rock in to which they are curved.
The rock hewn churches of Tigrai were generally excavated using a very different method to that favoured at Lalibela. The most impressive churches in and around Lalibela were generally created in two phases, first of all a moat like subterranean trench would be excavated deep into a horizontal rock, then the church itself would be chiseled into the monolithic block of rock created at the center of the trench.
However, more characteristic of the Tigrain rock churches are curved into vertical cliff face or from the outcrop, the former sometimes expands onto ledge, where a false entrance has been added.
The rock churches of Tigrai are dated back to the rule of Abreha and Atsebeha (Ezana and Saizana), the twin emperors of Axum, who introduced Christianity to Ethiopia in the 4th century AD up to the 15th century. Many of the rock hewn churches of Tigrai is lie along the main road between Mekelle and Adigrat the junction town to Adwa and Axum, and they are grouped under four major cluster, and some are accessible can be reached easily from the main asphalt road and the others situated off road from the main road and needs hours driving and mountain climbing over rough roads.
Dallol Desert &
Erta Ale
Ethiopia is home to one of the hottest, lowest, and least-liveable places on Earth, as well as one of the eeriest.
The Danakil Depression, straddling Ethiopia and Eritrea, is a place where three tectonic plates converge in a land of volcanoes, salt lakes, and otherworldly rock formations.
The few inhabitants who live in the region rely on salt mining to get by. The unwelcoming landscape is one of the most captivating you’ll ever see.
If you’re interested in visiting, don’t travel here alone; escorts or tour groups familiar with the territory are highly recommended.
