Traveling in Northern Ethiopia

I should start by warning that this is a long post (but it is full of pictures!) - About two months ago, while returning from Madagascar to the United States, I took a week-long detour to visit a friend serving in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia (yes, I am just getting around to writing about it now). This Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV), Chase, and I flew from Addis Ababa to the northern part of the country, where we toured some of the ancient historic sites. Ethiopians are proud of their rich culture and history, and I understood why: it is a remarkable country. Here are some of the thoughts and observations I took away from the visit...

Ethiopia
The birthplace of coffee. The home of the Queen of Sheba. The location of important anthropological discoveries. The final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. One of the first countries to adopt Christianity.

These are just a few of Ethiopia's claims to fame. The Ethiopian people are proud of these historical and legndary claims. Some other sources of pride include their complex languages, their diverse population (over 80 ethnic groups), the Rift Valley environment, their culinary history, and their position of leadership in Africa (home to the African Union and powerful leaders past and present). But the greatest source of pride for Ethiopians is the fact that, with the exception of a brief Italian occupation (1936-41), Ethiopia has never been colonized. In this sense, it is unique amongst African nations.

Physically, the country is as diverse as its people. The north is mountainous, dry, and dusty. The south-east is also semi-desert and dry (and affected by the current famine in the region). In between these areas runs the Great Rift Valley, from south-west to north-east, and this area has lush vegetation and diverse wildlife. The entire country is landlocked, and it is surrounded by some dangerous regimes (here's a list of its neighbors: Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya). Along with the lack of a coastline (most exports are sent through Djibouti) and questionable relationships with its neighbors, Ethiopia also started an international row by beginning the construction of a major hydroelectric dam on the Nile River. While the source of the Blue Nile lies in Ethiopia (at Lake Tana), because the river is the life-source for other countries in the region, any action taken by Ethiopia that affects the river is seen as a threat to these countries (notably Egypt).

Ethiopia has an interesting cultural and religious legacy. Until the 1980's, it was home to a large Jewish population. During this decade, due to war and famine, many made their way to Israel (via Israeli transport in airlifts like Operation Moses) and few Jews remain in Ethiopia. Currently, most of the population are practicing Christians, with about 15% practicing Islam. Another religious legacy of Ethiopia involves Rastafarianism. Rastafaris believe that Emperor Haile Selassie, the self-proclaimed "Lion of Judah," is Jesus incarnate as prophesied in Revelations. This belief is due to the teachings of Marcus Garvey, as his followers saw Selassie's crowning (he ruled from 1930-1974) as proof of Garvey's predictions of a black king in Africa.

Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind when people think of Ethiopia (well, after coffee) is food. Both for the variety of delicious cuisine and for the much-publicized famines that have affected the region (Ethiopian famine was the inspiration for this). But let's focus on the food: if you've been to an Ethiopian restaurant, you know the food is tasty and unique. The meals center around injera, a spongy flatbread that you eat with your hands and use to scoop up various types of wats (sauces or stews). The wats range from bland to spicy, and can include all sorts of tasty meats. I actually prefer the injera firfir, which is a breakfast meal consisting of injera used to eat... leftover refried injera! Here is a video clip of Bizarre Foods' Andrew Zimmern tasting some injera and wat:



Addis Ababa
Addis, the capital of Ethiopia, is a pretty special city. The first word I can think of to describe it is: HUGE. The city is sprawling and full of large buildings and wide boulevards. It just seemed so spacious to me. I probably had this impression because I was comparing it to Madagascar's capital, Antananarivo. Antananarivo was basically a village that became a city in 1625. It grew upon its original structure, meaning buildings were crammed wherever they would fit, and roads snaked up and down the hillsides. The town became a capital, and for hundreds of years saw new structures built on top of old ones, with little space to expand the infrastructure to meet the needs of a modern society (creating awful traffic). This contrasts with  Addis, which was a planned capital built in the late nineteenth century. The city was founded in 1886 by Menelik II. It is the home to the African Union and numerous other international missions.

Mekele and Hawzien
Chase and I flew from Addis to Mekele to begin our northern adventure. Mekele is the capital of the Tigray region, and a good launching-point for tours of the areas historical sites. From Mekele we made our way to Hawzien, where our friend Corey is working with the Millenium Villages Project. From Hawzien, we went to some of the incredible rock-hewn churches in the countryside.

Exterior of a rock church, carved out of the surrounding mountainside, dating back to the early years of Christianity in Ethiopia.

Some artwork in the interior of the church.

Some of the churches were built on cliff-sides to protect the priests and monks from persecution. Some such churches are only accessible by scaling a cliff-side by rope! (We did not do this, but we did hike up to one remote church as seen below)

Atop the mountain to find a hidden church

A long way down...

There is the entrance to the church

Literally built into the mountain!

Here is the cool eco-lodge we stayed at in Hawzien, Gheralta Lodge:

It was an excellent hotel, with delicious prepared dinners, it's own organic garden, great mountainous views, comfortable bungalows, and an all-around cool vibe. Their website puts it best:

Enrica and Silvio Rizzotti aim to offer a family style resort– but with impeccable standards of finishing, maintenance and cleanliness – and good, simple cooking prepared with local products.

Axum
From Hawzien, Chase and I hopped a bus and then a truck to get to Axum. We rode through mountainous ridges with beautiful views, passing by roads that led to Eritrea to the north (and were probably heavily guarded along the border - lingering hard feelings from the Ethiopian-Eritrean War). We ended up in Axum, the centerpiece of the ancient Axumite kingdom and the main city in Ethiopia's Christian history. Besides its religious history, the area is home to many impressive archaeological sites. There are so many sites that many have yet to be discovered; for example, a farmer came up to me and Chase with a 4th century Christian coin he found in his garden, and an Archaeologist recently discovered this major palace more or less by accident:

Palaital Remains

Also in Axum there are a series of large stone towers, known as stelae. They date from Pre-Christian times and signify burial sites of major rulers.

The remains of a stelae structure next to some of the still-standing stelae.

This distant view puts the size of the stelae in perspective.

When Emperor Haile Selassie's wife visited Axum, she wanted to pray at the ancient Church of St. Mary of Zion. But the holy site did not allow women to worship there, so the Emperor commissioned a larger church to accommodate the faithful of both genders.

The old St. Mary's of Zion church (this one dates from the 17th century, although it is built on the ruins of the original church built in the 300s AD)

Some of the interior artwork at the old church

More artwork (note the Trinity depiction at the top)

The large domed structure to the left is the massive new Church of St. Mary of Zion

Interior of the new St. Mary's of Zion Church

This bible dates from around 400AD, and they still use it in special masses at the new church.

For a long time, I thought I knew where the Ark of the Covenant was located. Turns out I was wrong. According to legend, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Menelik, went to Jerusalem to visit his father, and left with the Ark (Ethiopians are quick to point out that this was a gift and not stolen property). The Ark has resided for years in Axum, in the lower level of a monastery, with no one allowed admittance except a single caretaker priest (who cannot leave until he dies and is replaced by a new priest). I imagine his death is quickened if he decides to sneak a peak inside the Ark...

According to legend, this is the location of the Ark of the Covenant

After Axum, we flew back to Addis, and then I headed back to the USofA. The trip was a whirlwind, but definitely worth it.

Lessons
So, what did I learn from these travels?
1) Whenever possible, try to visit and travel with a PCV (or similarly-embedded friend) when visiting a developing country. Their knowledge of the local language and culture offers you a completely different experience than traveling alone or only with foreign companions. Plus most PCVs love the chance to travel within the country they are working, since they often take their vacation trips to other countries due to cheap travel (at least those serving in mainland Africa do; Madagascar PCVs are more isolated and usually just vacation at the nearest beach).
2) The pride that the Ethiopian people have for their country is impressive. In Mekele, for example, I saw two working-class Ethiopians who had saved up money just to travel to the north from Addis and see the remains of palaces and bask in their inherited history. I rarely saw such pride in Madagascar. Obviously Madagascar is a "newer" country, with less ancient historical sites, but the sites it does have (like the Queen's palace in Antananarivo or Jean Laborde's facilities in Mantasoa) are in poor condition. And we will not even get into the country's amazing natural heritage...
2a) To continue upon this difference in outlooks - Malagasy often look for foreign ways to do things and latch on to foreign culture. For instance, when promoting SRI (an improved rice-farming method) to Malagasy, I would emphasize that it originated in Madagascar. I was told by Malagasy extension workers to stop saying this, because most Malagasy believed that ideas from Madagascar were flawed and foreign ideas were inherently better. If they thought SRI came from Madagascar, they would be less likely to try the method!
3) For all of its impressive history and heritage, Ethiopia is one of the poorest nations in the world. This dichotomy really hit home for me when I saw this written in the guestbook at an Axum museum, from a Kenyan tourist:

Wow, what an amazing culture and history you have. You were so far ahead... what happened?

NB: Because languages in Ethiopia have their own characters and written form, all place names and words are transliterated into English as best as possible. Sometimes words are spelled differently in different places. A few examples in case you are searching for any of the places in this article: Axum/Aksum, Addis Ababa/Addis Abeba, Mekele/Makale, and Hawzien/Hawzen.