Ethiopia Discovery

Places To See

Lalibela

The Middle-East has Petra, Ethiopia has Lalibela. Its rock-hewn churches are arguably Ethiopia's top attraction, and they elicit an instinctive awe, whether you're a religious architecture buff or not.

Perched at an altitude of 2630m (8629ft), Lalibela also remains a very isolated place, and a centre of pilgrimage. More than anywhere else in the world, you'll get the impression you've landed in a kingdom at least seven centuries behind your own.

Lalibela's 11 churches are cut straight from the bedrock, so their roofs are at ground level. All 11 churches were built within one century; some, according to legend, with the help of angels. The churches have been kept alive by generations of priests who guard their treasures of ornamented crosses, illuminated Bibles and illustrated manuscripts.

Aksum

Sprawling, dusty, and rural - Aksum is modest almost to a fault. On first sight, it's hard to imagine that the town was ever the site of a great civilisation. Yet Aksum is one of Ethiopia's star attractions.

Littered with massive teetering stelae, ruins of palaces, underground tombs (most still undiscovered) and inscriptions rivalling the Rosetta stone itself, the town once formed part of the Aksumite kingdom. It has a vibrancy, life and continuing national importance very rarely found at ancient sites. Pilgrims still journey to Aksum and the great majority of Ethiopians believe passionately that the Ark of the Covenant resides here.

Though no longer a wealthy metropolis, the town continues to flourish as a centre of local trade; life continues as it has for millennia. Around the crumbling palaces, farmers go on ploughing their land, women continue to wash their clothes in the Queen of Sheba's Bath, and marketgoers and their donkeys hurry past the towering stelae. You won't find pyramid-parking coaches or sound-and-light shows here. And inextricably interwoven with the archaeological evidence is the local tradition - the legends, myths and fables.

Simien Mountains National Park

The Simien Mountains National Park is easily accessible and excellent for trekking, with stirring views and a large variety of wildlife. The mountains are home to three of Ethiopia's larger endemic mammals: the walia ibex, the gelada baboon and the elusive Ethiopian wolf. Other mammals sometimes seen are rock hyraxes, jackals, bushbucks and klipspringers.

Endemic bird species include the commonly seen thick-billed raven, and the less common black-headed siskin, white-collared pigeon, white-billed starling, wattled ibis, spot-breasted plover, white-backed black tit and Ankober seedeater or serin. Although common, one of the most memorable sights (and sounds!) is the huge lammergeyer, or bearded vulture, soaring low overhead.

To take in this beautiful landscape, you can arrange a guide, mules and a tent in Debark.

Pre-Departure Information

When to go?

Ethiopia is pretty pleasant all year round, with temperatures in Addis Ababa averaging around 20°C (68°F) no matter what the season. Early October, just after the rains is a particularly good time to visit. The country is wonderfully green, the wildflowers are stunning and there are fewer visitors. Trekking during this time is especially sublime, though it's pretty amazing throughout the entire dry season (October through mid-March).

The rainy season in most of the country is from mid-June to the end of September. If you're planning to visit the Lower Omo Valley, avoid April, May and October, when rains are heaviest and roads are impassable. Finally, you'd do well to coincide with one of Ethiopia's very colourful festivals, particularly Timkat or Meskel. Be aware, however, that domestic flights and hotels often fill up far in advance of Ethiopian festivals and European Christmas.

Travel Visa Overview

Everyone except Kenyan nationals needs a visa. Visas are usually single entry, although multiple entry visas do exist.

Electricity

220V

50Hz

Electrical Plugs

European plug with two circular metal pins

South African/Indian-style plug with two circular metal pins above a large circular grounding pin

Health Information

HIV/AIDS

HIV (Human Immuno-deficiency Virus) develops into AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), which is a fatal disease. Any exposure to blood, blood products or body fluids may put the individual at risk. The disease is often transmitted through sexual contact or dirty needles - body piercing, acupuncture, tattooing and vaccinations can be potentially as dangerous as intravenous drug use. HIV and AIDS can also be spread via infected blood transfusions, but blood supplies in most reputable hospitals are now screened, so the risk from transfusions is low. If you do need an injection, ask to see the syringe unwrapped in front of you, or take a needle and syringe pack with you. Fear of HIV infection should not preclude treatment for any serious medical conditions. Most countries have organisations and services for HIV-positive folk and people with AIDS. For a list of organizations divided by country, plus descriptions of their services, see www.aidsmap.com.

Malaria

This serious and potentially fatal disease is spread by mosquito bites. If you are travelling in endemic areas it is extremely important to avoid mosquito bites and to take tablets to prevent this disease. Symptoms range from fever, chills and sweating, headache, diarrhoea and abdominal pains to a vague feeling of ill-health. Seek medical help immediately if malaria is suspected. Without treatment malaria can rapidly become more serious and can be fatal.

If medical care is not available, malaria tablets can be used for treatment. You should seek medical advice, before you travel, on the right medication and dosage for you.

If you do contract malaria, be sure to be re-tested for malaria once you return home as you can harbour malaria parasites in your body even if you are symptom free.

Travellers are advised to prevent mosquito bites at all times. The main messages are: wear light-coloured clothing; wear long trousers and long-sleeved shirts; use mosquito repellents containing the compound DEET on exposed areas (prolonged overuse of DEET may be harmful, especially to children, but its use is considered preferable to being bitten by disease-transmitting mosquitoes); avoid perfumes and aftershave.Use a mosquito net impregnated with mosquito repellent (permethrin) - it may be worth taking your own.

Meningococcal meningitis

Not every headache is likely to be meningitis. There is an effective vaccine available which is often recommended for travel to epidemic areas. Generally, you're at pretty low risk of getting meningococcal meningitis, unless an epidemic is ongoing, but the disease is important because it can be very serious and rapidly fatal. You get infected by breathing in droplets coughed or sneezed into the air by sufferers or, more likely, by healthy carriers of the bacteria. You're more at risk in crowded, poorly ventilated places, including public transport and eating places.

The symptoms of meningitis are fever, severe headache, neck stiffness that prevents you from bending your head forward, nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light, which makes you prefer the darkness. With meningococcal meningitis, you may get a widespread, blotchy purple rash before any other symptoms appear. Meningococcal meningitis is an extremely serious disease that can cause death within a few hours of you first feeling unwell. Seek medical help without delay if you have any of the symptoms listed earlier, especially if you are in a risk area.

If you've been in close contact with a sufferer it's best to seek medical advice.

Yellow fever

Yellow fever is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito. There is an effective vaccine against yellow fever, so if you have been immunised, you can basically rule this disease out. Symptoms of yellow fever range from a mild fever which resolves over a few days to more serious forms with fever, headache, muscle pains, abdominal pain and vomiting. This can progress to bleeding, shock and liver and kidney failure. The liver failure causes jaundice, or yellowing of your skin and the whites of your eyes - hence the name. There's no specific treatment but you should seek medical help urgently if you think you have yellow fever.

Hepatitis

Several different viruses cause hepatitis; they differ in the way that they are transmitted. The symptoms in all forms of the illness include fever, chills, headache, fatigue, feelings of weakness and aches and pains, followed by loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine, light-coloured faeces, jaundiced (yellow) skin and yellowing of the whites of the eyes.

There are 6 known types of viral hepatitis:A, B, C, D, E and G. G is not dangerous. A and E are passed on by the fecal-oral route of transmission; there is a vaccine. Seek medical advice, but there is not much you can do apart from resting, drinking lots of fluids, eating lightly and avoiding fatty foods. A and E cause an acute illness, but you will recover fully from it.

B and D are passed on via blood, saliva, semen and vaginal fluids. They can be passed on by close contact, sexual contact, and blood-to-blood contact. The symptoms of hepatitis B may be more severe than type A and the disease can lead to long-term problems such as chronic liver damage, liver cancer or a long-term carrier state. There is a vaccine.

Hepatitis C is only passed on from blood-to-blood contact. There is no vaccine.

Intestinal worms

These parasites are most common in rural, tropical areas. The different worms have different ways of infecting people. Some may be ingested on food such as undercooked meat (eg, tapeworms) and some enter through your skin (eg, hookworms). Infestations may not show up for some time, and although they are generally not serious, if left untreated some can cause severe health problems later. Ascaris worm is common in East Africa. Consider having a stool test when you return home to check for worm infestation and determine the appropriate treatment.

Schistosomiasis (bilharzia)

Also known as bilharzia, this disease is carried in freshwater by tiny worms that enter through the skin and attach themselves to the intestines or bladder. The first symptom may be tingling and sometimes a light rash around the area where the worm entered. Weeks later, a high fever may develop. A general unwell feeling may be the first symptom, or there may be no symptoms. Once the disease is established, abdominal pain and blood in the urine are other signs. The infection often causes no symptoms until the disease is well established (several months to years after exposure), and damage to internal organs is irreversible.

Avoid swimming or bathing in freshwater where bilharzia is present. Even deep water can be infected. If you do get wet, dry off quickly and dry your clothes as well. A blood test is the most reliable test, but it will not show positive until a number of weeks after exposure.

Weather Information

There's some truth in the old Ethiopian Tourism Commission slogan '13 Months of Sunshine'. Although the famed historical circuit and the rest of the highlands receives rain between mid-March and September, most days during this period still see their fair share of sunshine. The far east and northern highlands see even more sun with significant rain only falling in July and August. The mercury rarely pokes its nose above the 30°C (86°F) mark during the day and plunges sometimes to almost freezing at night.

History and Culture

Pre-20th Centure History

Ethiopia has been around for a very long time. The country's Rift Valley is known as the cradle of humanity - fossils of the oldest known upright hominid (4-million years old) were found here in 2005, surpassing the famous 3.5-million-year-old 'Lucy', which was discovered in the same region back in 1974. Ethiopians have a record of their rulers that stretches back 5000 years, and although this is not supported by other records, you can find Biblical passages which record Ethiopian episodes around 1000 BC. The Queen of Sheba's son, Menelik I, is regarded as the first emperor of Ethiopia - his dynasty ended with Haile Selassie, who ruled from 1930 until 1974.

According to local tradition, ancient Ethiopians were Jews, and a community of Ethiopian Jews lived in the country until the late 1980s, when the last of them moved to Israel. Christianity was brought to the then Kingdom of Axum by St Frumentius, who was consecrated as the first bishop in 330AD. Axum was slap-bang in the path of the armies of Islam, which set out from Mecca on a holy war of conversion in 632AD. Although the Christian kingdom was cut off from the rest of Christendom, Islam never really took hold.

Over the next thousand years, the kingdom came under attack from various forces - pagan tribes forced the Ethiopian emperors to abandon their cities and become nomads for a time, Muslims moved into the east of the country in the 12th and 14th centuries, and in the 16th century the Islamic kingdoms gained the support of the Ottoman Empire, seriously threatening the power of the Kingdom of Axum.

After a remarkable life span, the Axum empire broke down into its constituent provinces in the 18th century, triggering 100 years of warfare between rival warlords. The shattered empire was eventually reunified by Ras Kassa, who crowned himself Emperor Tewodros in 1855, but later shot himself when his fortress was beseiged by a British military expedition. Subsequent emperors invested the privy purse in European arms and expanded the empire.

Modern History

In 1936 the country was overrun by Mussolini's Italian troops, who hung around until 1941, when Italy surrendered to the Allies and Ethiopia regained its independence. In 1962 emperor Haile Selassie annexed Eritrea, sparking a guerrilla backlash by the disgruntled Eritreans that would last 30 years. Although Haile Selassie was seen as a national hero, opinion turned against him as nobility and the church filled their pockets while millions of landless peasants went hungry. In 1974, as students, workers, peasants and the army rose against him, Selassie was deposed and a military dictatorship took over. Under the leadership of Mengistu Haile Mariam, the new government, the Derg, threw out Americans, jailed trade union leaders, banned the church and turned to the USSR for economic aid. Upheaval was the last thing the already unstable country needed, and the Eritreans and invading Somalis took full advantage of the chaos. Soviet and Cuban troops intervened to fight back both forces, but did not succeed in defeating the Eritrean guerillas.

Mengistu tried to tighten his grip on the country by instituting conscription, curfews, population transfers - a disastrous initiative which herded people around the countryside in an effort to avoid famines - and people's committees, a sinister form of neighbourhood watch. But it was all to no avail - the Eritreans took Ethiopia's main port, the Tigray People's Liberation Front joined in the fighting, the Soviets pulled out, coffee prices fell and a major famine ravaged the country. In May 1991 Mengistu fled and a rebel coalition under Tigrayan Meles Zenawi took over. They inherited six million people facing famine, a shattered economy and moribund industrial and agricultural sectors, but decided to make moves toward democracy anyway.

A new constitution was ratified in 1994, notably allowing any of Ethiopia's nine regions to become independent if they wish to. The country's first parliamentary elections were held in 1995, with the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front winning 98% of the vote - all the major opposition parties boycotted the poll. Meles Zenawi became prime minister and appointed a predominantly Tigrayan cabinet. The government's priorities included expanding the private sector and improving food security.

Recent History

Relations with Eritrea deteriorated in recent years and in June 1998 armed conflict broke out and borders were closed. Two years later, in 2000, the border war came to a close when Ethiopia defeated Eritrea and a peace agreement was signed. The plan called for the creation of a 25km (15.5mi) buffer zone along the border, to be patrolled by a UN peace-keeping force.

In 2002, the Boundary Commission announced its decision on the demarcation of the border. When it ruled in April 2003 that the town of Badme was in Eritrea, the Ethiopian government declared the ruling unacceptable. Surveying and the construction of boundary posts began in May, but in October settlement of the demarcation dispute was indefinitely delayed.

In 2004 the government began an ambitious and controversial relocation program, hoping to move up to two million people away from the low-rainfall highlands to improve the country's food security prospects.

Since the controversial government elections in May 2005, there have been two isolated occasions in Addis Ababa where large opposition protests have sparked violence. On June 8 at least 22 civilians were killed when police fired into crowds of protesters throwing stones. The fallout resulted in thousands of opposition party members, journalists and protestors being jailed. After five months of quiet, new demonstrations in the capital resulted in police killing 46 and arresting thousands more.