Ethiopia

Introduction

Farming

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Brutal war and terrible famine have given Ethiopia an image of being one of the world's most troubled countries. Sadly, it's a pretty correct perception. But Ethiopia's ancient history makes it a wonderful travel destination despite the country's bristling problems.

Ancient Ethiopians, the locals will tell you, were Jews who settled here well over 5,000 years ago. Archeologists make even bolder claims, stating that Ethiopia is the 'cradle of life'; it was here that they found Lucy, the oldest human fossil discovered. Through its history, Ethiopia was attacked and sometimes invaded, but achieved the remarkable distinctions of being Africa's only nation never to be colonized and maintaining its Christianity when practically every other east African nation accepted Islam. The proud, independent spirit which has driven the nation for milleniums underpins the Ethiopian attitude. Hopefully, this will translate into progressive developments gearing towards a brighter future.

Brief History

Ethiopia is considered one of the oldest human settlement areas, if not the oldest according to some scientific findings. Lucy, discovered in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar region, is considered the world’s second oldest, but most complete, and best preserved adult Australopithecine fossil. Lucy is estimated to have lived in Ethiopia 3.2 million years ago.
Around the eighth century BC, a kingdom known as Dʿmt was established in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, with its capital at Yeha in northern Ethiopia. After the fall of Dʿmt in the fourth century BC, the plateau came to be dominated by smaller successor kingdoms, until the rise of one of these kingdoms during the first century BC, the Aksumite Empire, ancestor of medieval and modern Ethiopia, which was able to reunite the area. In 316 AD, a Christian philosopher from Tyre, Meropius, embarked on a voyage of exploration along the coast of Africa. They practiced the Christian faith in private, and soon converted the queen and several other members of the royal court.

In the early fifteenth century Ethiopia sought to make diplomatic contact with European kingdoms for the first time since Aksumite times. The first continuous relations with a European country began in 1508 with Portugal. When Emperor Susenyos converted to Roman Catholicism in 1624, years of revolt and civil unrest followed resulting in thousands of deaths. The Jesuit missionaries had offended the Orthodox faith of the local Ethiopians, and on 25 June 1632 Susenyos's son, Emperor Fasilides, declared the state religion to again be Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and expelled the Jesuit missionaries and other Europeans.

In 1889 and the early 1890s, Sahle Selassie, as king of Shewa, and later as Emperor Menelik II, with the help of Ras Gobena's Shewan Oromo militia, began expanding his kingdom to the south and east, expanding into areas that had not been held since the invasion of Ahmed Gragn, and other areas that had never been under his rule, resulting in the borders of Ethiopia of today. The Ethiopian Great famine that afflicted Ethiopia from 1888 to 1892 cost it roughly one-third of its population.
The early twentieth century was marked by the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I. The independence of Ethiopia was interrupted by the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and Italian occupation (1936–1941). In 1952 Haile Selassie orchestrated the federation with Eritrea which he dissolved in 1962. This annexation sparked the Eritrean War of Independence. Although Haile Selassie was seen as a national hero, opinion within Ethiopia turned against him owing to the worldwide oil crisis of 1973, food shortages, uncertainty regarding the succession, border wars, and discontent in the middle class created through modernization. Haile Selassie's reign came to an end in 1974, when a Soviet-backed Marxist-Leninist military junta, the "Derg" led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, deposed him, and established a one-party communist state.

In the beginning of 1980s, a series of famines hit Ethiopia that affected around 8 million people, leaving 1 million dead.
The Collapse of Communism in general, and in Eastern Europe during the Revolutions of 1989, coincided with the Soviet Union stopping aid to Ethiopia altogether in 1990. The strategic outlook for Mengistu quickly deteriorated.
In May 1998, a border dispute with Eritrea led to the Eritrean-Ethiopian War that lasted until June 2000. This has hurt the nation's economy, but strengthened the ruling coalition.

Geography

At 1,126,829 km2, Ethiopia is the world's 27th-largest country. It lies between latitudes 3° and 15°N, and longitudes 33° and 48°E.
The major portion of Ethiopia lies on the Horn of Africa, which is the easternmost part of the African landmass. Bordering Ethiopia are Sudan and South Sudan to the west, Djibouti and Eritrea to the north, Somalia to the east, and Kenya to the south. Within Ethiopia is a vast highland complex of mountains and dissected plateaus divided by the Great Rift Valley, which runs generally southwest to northeast and is surrounded by lowlands, steppes, or semi-desert. The great diversity of terrain determines wide variations in climate, soils, natural vegetation, and settlement patterns. Ethiopia is an ecologically diverse country, ranging from the deserts along the eastern border to the tropical forests in the south to extensive Afromontane in the northern and southwestern parts. Lake Tana in the north is the source of the Blue Nile. It also has a large number of endemic species, notably the Gelada Baboon, the Walia Ibex and the Ethiopian wolf (or Simien fox). The wide range of altitude has given the country a variety of ecologically distinct areas, this has helped to encourage the evolution of endemic species in ecological isolation.

Regions

Ethiopia is divided into nine administrative states.

• Afar
• Amhara
• Benishangul-Gumuz
• Gambela
• Harari
• Oromia
• Somali
• Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region
• Tigray

Cities

• Addis Ababa
• Dire Dawa
• Axum
• Bahir Dar
• Dese
• Gondar
• Nazret
• Mekele

Sights and Activities

Simien Mountains National Park

Simien Mountains National Park is a spectactular mountain range in the north of the country including one of the highest peaks in Africa, Ras Dashan. The park is also home to some rare animals like the Gelada baboon, the Simien fox and the Walia ibex, a goat found nowhere else in the world, and the Ethiopian wolf. It was one of the first UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978, but unfortunately has been placed on the UNESCO World Heritage danger list in 1996, mainly because population of some species was declining rapidly.

Aksum

Aksum is one of the cultural highlights of Ethiopia and the ruins of this ancient city form the heart of historical Ethiopia, found in the north of the country. The ruins date back to the first century A.D. but much of it is of later times during which the Aksum Kingdom was one of the most important kingdoms in this part of the world.

Omo National Park

The Omo National Park is both of cultural and natural significance for the country. The park is located in the south of the country and the lower valley of the Omo river is on the UNESCO World Heritage List list due to its importance regarding fossils of the earliest human settlements in the world.

Lalibela

Lalibela is another cultural highlight of Ethiopia and mainly known for its 11 medieval monolithic cave churches dating back to the 13th-century. They are located in a spectactular mountainous region in the heart of Ethiopia and Lalibela is extremely important regarding Ethiopian Christianity and keeps on being an important place for pilgrims.

Bale Mountains

The Bale Mountains are home to many of Ethiopia's endemic animals, notably the Ethiopian Wolf, (Canis simensis). Apart from the wolf, you can find giant molerats, nyala and many birds on the Sanetti Plateau at 4,000 metres high.

Danakil Depression

The Danakil Depression is a remote place home of the Afar population. The depression is 100 metres below sea level. It's one of the hottest place on earth, with an average of around 34 °C, and highs over 50 °C sometimes. You can visit a salty desert, Dallol Crater and Erta Ale volcano wich contain one of the few lava lake in the world.

Weather

Although Ehtiopia lies within the tropical zone, large areas in the country are far from tropical, that is hot and humid. Ok, some parts can get extremely hot, especially in the northeast and eastern lowlands, but much of Ethiopia is located at an elevation of 1,000 to over 2,500 metrrs above sea level, including the capital Addis Abeba. In Addis, temperatures average between 21 °C (July-August) to 25 °C (March-May) during the day, dropping to a rather chilly 5 °C (December) to 10 °C (April-August) at night. The rainy season lasts from late May to September, with July and August seeing much more rain than any other month, around 300 mm each month. October to January is fairly dry. This weather applies to most of the higher parts of Ethiopia, but of course temperatures can be a few degrees lower or higher depending on elevation (Addis is at roughly 2,400 metres). Also, the western parts of the highlands tend to be (much) wetter. Like mentioned above, the (north)east is dry and hot yearround with less than 500 mm of rain a year, but some years are almost completely dry, with severe droughts and starvation being a real threat.

Getting there

Plane

Ethiopian Airlines is the national airline of Ethiopia and has its base at Bole International Airport (ADD) near the capital Addis Ababa. International flights with Ethiopian Airlines include destinations like Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Asmara, Bahrain, Bamako, Bangkok, Beijing, Beirut, Brazzaville, Brussels, Bujumbura, Cairo, Conakry, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Delhi, Djibouti, Douala, Dubai, Entebbe, Frankfurt, Guangzhou, Harare, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Khartoum, Kigali, Kilimanjaro, Kinshasa, Lagos, Libreville, Lilongwe, Lomé, London, Luanda, Lubumbashi, Lusaka, Mombasa, Monrovia, Mumbai, Nairobi, N'Djamena, Ouagadougou, Paris, Rome, Riyadh, Stockholm, Tel Aviv, Washington, D.C. and Zanzibar.

A number of other cities like Amsterdam (KLM), Sana'a (Yemenia), Istanbul (Turkish Airlines) and Jeddah (Saudi Arabian Airlines) have connections as well. Cairo, Dubai and Amman also have flights to Addis Ababa.

By Train

Trains travel between Dire Dawa and Djibouti City. Trains leave three times a week in both directions and it takes around 13 hours to cover the route.

By Car

Ethiopia may be entered by vehicle at any of the open borders with Djibouti, Kenya, Sudan and Somaliland.
The Awash/Galafi route towards Djibouti is longer than the one via Gelille, but it's entirely paved tought might be even faster. Crossings borders with Djibouti usually is suprisingly hassle free.
To Kenya, use the route described below or a rougher route via the Lower Omo Valley to Lake Turkana. Note that you need visa before arrival and you can only get your Kenyan entry stamp in Nairobi, making this route not advisable in the other (north-south) direction.
Have your papers and insurance in order and expect some hassling at borders, though it's usually ok and won't take too much time.

By Bus

Borders between Ethiopia and Eritrea remain closed, but you can travel to Djibouti, Kenya, Sudan and Somaliland by bus. There are two land routes to Djibouti. One via Dire Dawa and Gelille, and one via Awash and Galafi. By bus, it takes around 11 hours from Dire Dawa to Djitbouti City.
To Kenya, the best crossing is at Moyale, almost 800 kilometres south of Addis Ababa. Daily buses link Addis Abeba and Moyale taking about 1.5 days. Across the border, buses go to Marsabit (8,5 hours) and Isiolo (17 hours) along a very rough dirt road. The route used to be unsafe because of banditry but this has been reduced significantly, though always check the latest safety situation.
To Somalia, daily buses run between Jijiga and Wajaale (two hours), and across the border taxis go to to Hargeisa, Somaliland’s capital.
To Sudan, crossing is at Metema/Gallabat, 180 kilometres west of Gonder. Take a direct bus (seven hours) from Gonder to Metema, cross the border on foot and take a truck in Gallabat to Gedaref (six hours).

By Boat

There are no foreign entries to Ethiopia by boat, as the country no longers has access to the open sea since Eritrea became an independent country.

Getting around

Plane

Ethiopian Airlines has service between Addis Ababa, Arba Minch, Dire Dawa, Kabri Dar, Lalibela, Mekane Selam, Mek'ele, Mizan Teferi, Asosa, Axum and Bahir Dar, among a few others. If you purchase your arriving and departing international flights on Ethiopian Airlines, you will be eligible for a huge discount on flights within the country.

By Train

The only train line that actually runs trains is the one between Addis Ababa and Djibouti, via Dire Dawa and Harar.
It is a long, slow and even uncomfortable train link.

By Car

Several main roads are in reasonable condition. Other than those few roads, conditions are much worse and 4wd cars are almost always recommended if you want to explore more of Ethiopia, except the parts close to Addis Abeba. You can rent cars at international firms at Addis and several airports. Cars with drivers who double as guides are also possible and recommended. You need a national driver's licence or international driving permit and be at least 18 years old. Traffic drives on the right.

By Bus

Government buses and private (mini)buses ply most routes between cities and regional towns. Services are slow, uncomfortable and sometimes are delayed when the weather strikes. Try to book tickets a day in advance. Several new bus lines have recently started running buses from Addis, including Salam bus company and Sky Bus. Salam Buses go to Bahir Dar, Gondar, Dessie, Harar, and other major towns.

By Boat

No scheduled passenger services run within Ethiopia, although the occasional tour on several rivers like the Nile are an option.

Red Tape

Nationals from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, Luxemburg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the United States can obtain a visa upon arrival for US$20 and two passport photos. This is only available at Bole International Airport and not at border posts over land!
For more information, contact the nearest Ethiopian embassy.

Money

See also Money Matters

Eat

Ethiopian food is unique. A grain known as teff (Eragrostis tef) is indigenous to the area and is used to create injera. Injera is a spongy pancake-like bread with a slightly sourdough flavor (it is allowed to ferment for several days). These pancakes are served with nearly every meal and are used to scoop the other foods as an edible utensil. Most Ethiopian food is eaten with the hands. It is customary to eat only with the right hand, as the left hand is considered unclean.

Various stewed meat and vegetable dishes are common, often utilizing local spices and herbs. Wat generally refers to a meat dish, often made with lamb, beef, goat, or chicken cut into bite sized pieces.

Due to Ethiopia's history with Italy, Italian food is fairly common. However, the traveler should not expect local chefs to be skilled in this area of cuisine.

Health

See also Travel Health

Proof that you had a yellow fever vaccination is required upon entering Ethiopia when you have been in a yellow fever country within 7 days of entering Ethiopia. Still, it is recommended you get the yellow fever vaccination anyway. You have to have a cholera stamp (prove of the fact that you don't have that desease) when entering overland.

It's a good thing to get your vaccinations in order before travelling to Ethiopia. The general vaccination against Diphtheria, Tetanus and Polio (DTP) is recommended. Also both hepatitis A as well as typhoid would be recommended.

If you are staying longer than 3 months or have a particular risk (travelling by bike, handling of animals, visits to caves) you might consider a rabies vaccination. Vaccination against Tuberculosis as well as hepatitis B are also sometimes recommended for stays longer than 3 months. When staying longer than 6 months, vaccination against meningitis might be recommended, depending on your contact with other people.

Like most African countries south of the Sahara, Malaria is prevalent in the country. Don't underestimate this tropical disease and take precautions. Buy repellent (preferably with 50% DEET), and sleep under a net. Dengue is present in some parts of the country, mainly around urban areas.

Finally, other possible health issues include diarrhea and other general travellers' diseases like motion sickness. Watch what you eat and drink and in case you get it, drink plenty of fluids (to prevent dehydration) and bring ORS.

Safety

See also Travel Safety

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet is slow and is better early in the morning or middle of the night.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Post

The postal service in and out of Ethiopia is quite reasonable to send souvenirs back. Ethiopian postal service is perhaps asonishingly quite reliable viz other countries in Africa.

External LInks

• Ethiopian Tourism Website