Ethiopia: Across
northeastern Oromia, from Sheikh Hussein to Harar (January 2017)
6. Days 16 to 18: Addis
Ababa and around
Return to main Ethiopia January 2017 webpage
Numan and Mahmood spent one day in Harar and returned to Sheikh Hussein by bus via the town of
Adama. After spending two full days in Harar, Gebru and I took a bus to
Addis Ababa (11 hours), where I spent 2 days before flying back home. Gebru spent a few more days visiting brothers and other
relatives before returning to Adwa.
Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa.
It was built to commemorate the liberation of Ethiopia from Italian occupation
(1941). It contains the tombs of Emperor Haile Selassie and Empress Menen Asfaw.
Church of Kiddist
Maryam built in 1911 by Empress Zawditu (left) and
marble tomb of Emperor Menelik II in a subterranean
mausoleum beneath the church (right).
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Former
train station of the Compagnie du Chemin de Fer Djibouto-Ethiopien
(CDE). The railway
was constructed between 1897 and 1917, and inaugurated in 1917. It has been in service
until in 2000. A completely new railway between Addis Ababa and Djibouti (and a
new station in Addis Ababa) was built between 2013 and 2016, and inaugurated in
2016.
Paintings on display in the Ethnological
Museum:
- Haile Selassie‛s banquet.
- Battle of Adwa (March 1, 1896), a
major victory of the Ethiopian army led by emperor Menelik
II over the Italian forces.
- Life and death (in Magdala)
of Emperor Tewodros II (1818-68)
Stone engraved with inscriptions in Sabaen writing, from Yeha (north
of Tigray), exposed at the National Museum. Yeha was
the capital of the Damot empire, which
predated the Axumite empire and was a center
of the Sabaean culture that initially
developed in the south west of the Arabian Peninsula. For photos of Yeha, click here.
The so-called ″Portuguese bridge″
near Debre Libanos, some
100km north of Addis Ababa. Some people say that the bridge was built by
Portuguese in the 16th century, others by Ras Darge in the late 19th century. The three-arch bridge spans
the Gur river (mostly dry in January) just before it
plunges into the Jemma river, a tributary of the Blue Nile.
View from the bridge toward the deep
Jemma canyon.
Links
to the various sections of the trip:
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