An ancient land of fertile well-watered mountains that form the main source of the Blue Nile, northern Ethiopia has long stood at the cultural crossroads of Africa, Arabia and the Mediterranean. These divergent influences have bequeathed the region a unique cultural and historical heritage epitomised by a quartet of unique and magnificent UNESCO World Heritage Sites – Aksum, Lalibela, Gondar and the Simien Mountains National Park – as well as a vast array of lesser-known but equally fascinating historical sites.
- Three thousand year old Aksum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where obelisks as tall as ten-storey buildings overlook mysterious ruined palaces once inhabited by the Queen of Sheba and a temple that is said to house the Biblical Ark of the Covenant.
- Also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the atmospheric 12th-century complex of rock-hewn churches at Lalibela, still active shrines of worship today, has been dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World”.
- Freshwater Lake Tana, a vast inland sea fringed by tropical greenery, is dotted with evocatively painted island monasteries such as Ura Kidane Mihret and Narga Selassie
- The Camelot of Africa, Gondar is best known for the magnificent 17th century castles that adorn its Fasil Ghebbi UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- The spectacular hiking trails that traverse Simien Mountains National Park, a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site, provide an opportunity to see Walia ibex and other endemic wildlife, or to ascend the country’s highest peak, the 4,533m Ras Dejen.
- Negash is Ethiopia’s oldest Islamic settlement, established by a group of Muslim refugees that included close relatives of the Prophet Mohammed during his lifetime.
- The Blue Nile, which arcs southwest from its source in Lake Tana, plummets over a spectacular 45m high waterfall called Tis Isat (Water that Smokes) into a mile-deep gorge whose scale invites comparisons to the Grand Canyon.
The towering sandstone outcrops of the Gheralta Escarpment are incised with around two-dozen isolated rock-hewn churches reached along challenging but wonderfully scenic footpaths.
