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Lost city found in Ethiopia
One of Africa's most interesting countries has just got a new site to visit.
An ancient Muslim city thought lost for a thousand years has recently been discovered. A team of French archaeologists have found the location of the medieval trading center of Gendebelo.
While Ethiopia is famous for being the second oldest Christian country in the world (after Armenia), about half of the population is Muslim and the two communities have lived side by side for centuries, sometimes peacefully, sometimes not.
Gendebelo was part of the more peaceful exchange, acting as a focus for trade between the two cultures.
The archaeologists puzzled out the location of the city with the help of an old manuscript that an earlier researcher had found in the Muslim city of Harar, where it was being used for wrapping sugar. The manuscript told the tale of a 16th century Venetian explorer who had found the ruins of Gendebelo in the desert and gave vague references to the city being "the place where mules are to be unloaded and camels take over."
That was enough for the archaeologists, who realized the explorer meant the escarpment that marks the borderland between the rough highlands and the arid Danakil Depression. It was here that merchants who used mules (the Christians) and those who used camels (the Muslims) met for mutual profit.
Gallery: Images of Ethiopia
The French team was able to pinpoint the site as being a medieval city now known as Nora. It's been abandoned for years except for the mosque, which is still used by local farmers. Legends say that in ancient times the people of Nora were so rich that on his wedding day one young man paved the road to his bride's town with injera bread. Allah grew so angry at this conspicuous consumption that he destroyed the town with a rain of ash.
The ruins of Nora are a bit out of the way for modern travel, but planned excavations will almost certainly reveal some fine remains, and the town may become a new tourist sight. In the meantime, one great Muslim center of civilization, Harar, is still very much in use. The city is in the eastern part of Ethiopia and is considered the fourth holiest sight for Muslims after Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. The people of Harar are majority Muslim, but there's a large Christian population too. Both speak Harari, a Semitic language related to Arabic and Hebrew. Jews also used to live in the area, but they fled to Israel and other countries during Ethiopia's civil war in the 1980s.
Harar was founded more than a thousand years ago and is still enclosed by a city wall, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Besides the walls, there are three mosques dating to the tenth century, and the house of the French poet Rimbaud, who lived here when we was working as a gun runner and hanging out with the local governor, who was the father of Haile Selassie. Another weird sight is the nightly feeding of the hyenas.
Have you been to Ethiopia? Tell us about your experiences in the comments section. I'm taking my wife there for our tenth anniversary and I'm open to suggestions of places to go!
Gallery: 10 tourist destinations with a funny name
Filed under: Arts and Culture, History, Learning, Africa, Ethiopia
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Sean McLachlan Aug 9th 2009 3:13AM
Just a quick note about comments, folks. I will delete any post that is an ad or hate speech. As you can see from some of the comments I let through, I'm pretty permissive, but if I see you saying all people of a certain religion must die or if you use racial epithets, you go into the trash bin where you belong. You've been warned about this before, Booger. Grow up or leave.
yy Aug 10th 2009 3:25PM
Hey sean , I just came from Ethiopia one month ago & if u need any info ask me I have an updated info. also if u are in n.y i can teach u some words to communicate.peace
LAWRENCEDAVIS Aug 9th 2009 10:11AM
Thank you for this writing Sean.
I was bless to touch the land of Ethiopia.
First I will tell you that I am a Jamaican who love our King the benovelent one.
As an Ethiopian going home after 400 year from wrongful taking. what a sight to re-behold. I will continue this thought later.
go to Sashamine and lend a hand. all the country is beautiful.
you can go to learn about you God. for surely you Know this is where he/she dwell.
We are the first to be baptise after the disciples.
I must go. to be continue.
heidi Aug 9th 2009 1:18PM
sean- I am not a racist i have alot of black friends but they are good people. Obama is a liar and conned the american people to vote for him. people were stupid enough to do it and now the entire country is paying for their mistakes.There is good and bad in all people but he is an evil corrupt greedy man who only wants to help minorities and let illegals in and thats wrong. Pelosi and barney franks are evil too and they are white i dont like what they are doing in congress. So although you may think you know me you are wrong, i am against injustice no matter who it is.If Condalleza Rice would have run for president i would have voted for her instantly she would have made a great president because she has the courage to stand up for the american people and she is intelligent,has morals,compassion and she is honest that is what we need,not obama who thinks he is above the law and wants to run our country as a dictator.
Sean McLachlan Aug 9th 2009 3:33PM
If I had a dollar for every angry conservative who claimed to have "lots of black friends". . .
You still haven't explained to me how someone who is biracial can be a racist. Does he hate all his white relatives?
ethiopia Aug 9th 2009 1:11PM
those French archeologist they are not important archeologist for the non important
for us please send them back.think twice
Dave R Aug 10th 2009 3:13PM
Hey Sean,
Awesome article- I esp. enjoyed the details about the manuscripts used for wrapping sugar.!I was trying to decide where I should spend my hard earned vacation time and your post decided it for me- Ethiopia it is. So apart from lalibela, Axum the lakes in Awassa, wild life etc..should I see? It'd be great ( if you're not too busy) if you could give me a quick heads up. There seems to be whole lot to do in this country!!
Sean McLachlan Aug 10th 2009 3:20PM
Actually I haven't been there myself! I'm still in the research stage of my trip. This story caught my eye because before I was a writer, I worked for ten years as an archaeologist.
A couple of places we want to visit are the various monasteries scattered around the country, the battlefield of Adowa, and Lake Tana, which is the source of the Blue Nile. We'll be there for several weeks and plan to do a lecture circuit of the Ethiopian universities. I'll also (hopefully) be researching a book. Still need to get the contract on that one!
Friends of ours have given us the number of a driver they hired when they were there. We've heard from several sources that this is the best way to go as public transport can be a bit unreliable.
I imagine Ethiopia is a bit like India, where just walking down the street is interesting. This suits our travel style, which consists of landing in an interesting spot and hanging out for a while. Check out http://www.tourismethiopia.org/ to get started.
ETHIOPIAN Aug 15th 2009 2:52AM
Are you joking, stop speading YOUR lies.
Do you even know where Ethiopia is?
Don't speak of thing which you know nothing about.
I am an ethiopian and I can say whole heartedly say it's
a country with the majority being christian.
In fact, it's the home of Orthodox christianity's
most devout followers with over 100 roch hewn churchs built
in the B.C. era by hand. These men who built them dedicated
their lives to their faith so please do not trivialize their beliefs
with your ignorant fallacies.
Sean McLachlan Aug 15th 2009 2:57AM
Many of your fellow Ethiopians disagree with you. Some say your country is majority Muslim, but they're like you and trying to tear apart a society that should be working hard to unify. Most Ethiopians on this forum have been agreeing with me that it's half and half. And why is that such a bad thing? Both Christians and Muslims have contributed great things to world civilization, and to Ethiopia too.
And you obviously didn't read my article very carefully. Like all the "culture warriors" you're importing your flame war from another website without really knowing or caring what's going on with this one. None of you ever comment on Gadling more than once or twice.
Ethiopian Aug 14th 2009 10:07PM
Are you joking, stop speading YOUR lies.
Do you even know where Ethiopia is?
Don't speak of thing which you know nothing about.
I am an ethiopian and I can say whole heartedly say it's
a country with the majority being christian.
In fact, it's the home of Orthodox christianity's
most devout followers with over 100 roch hewn churchs built
in the B.C. era by hand. These men who built them dedicated
their lives to their faith so please do not trivialize their beliefs
with your ignorant fallacies.
Mohammed Aug 27th 2009 1:56AM
You must visit the walled city of harar. It is the spiritual city of the Muslims of Ethiopia. UNESCO awarded Harar with the "Cities for peace" award. Harar is also registered by UNESCO in the world heritage list. Friendly people and hyenas. I live in Harar. you can email me if you have questions.
kitcho Oct 16th 2009 2:33PM
Of all the place of mixed people of different religion of Muslim and Coptic, Ethiopia, I must say is blessed to have people, who have tolerance among each other so far. However, as the fundamentals and the Wahhabi are trying to steer up the Muslim, I just wonder how long Ethiopia is going to be such a tranquility of peace in that country. The fact is that the Arabs always have targeted that country to create a Muslim world. I always wonder though.