About Ethiopia

and most of the Nile's water comes from Ethiopia. And while Egypt’s written history, through the ancient art of hieroglyphics, may be more complete, Ethiopia is actually Africa’s oldest nation.

The Kingdom of Ethiopia was founded in the 10th century, B.C.E by Solomon’s first son, Menelik I, according to tradition, though the first documented Kingdom emerged in the second century C.E. Ethiopia’s ancient economy culture was influenced and strengthened by immigrants from the Southern Arabian peninsula, who had been settling in the northern Ethiopian landscape since 500 years before the Common Era. The fact that the modern country Ethiopia was a nation whose culture was able to develop at this early date is outstanding. These dates show that it clearly is the oldest nation in Africa, as well as one of the oldest documented, continual cultures still alive in the world today- even the ancient Egyptian civilization has long passed into the history books! The capital city, Addis Ababa was named as such in 1889. It had been a strong economic and cultural center of the country, and was a natural choice.

There are two possible origins of the name Ethiopia. Tradition says it derives from the name of Etiopik, descendant of the Biblical Noah. Abyssinia, another ancient name for this land, probably comes to us from the Arabic ‘Habashat’, which in this context refers to the country's "mixed" population. According to Egyptian texts, 2000 years B.C.E, the original inhabitants of Ethiopia were Cushitic language speakers, and as they traded with the Arabic speaking Egyptians, this is likely where the name ‘Habashat’ came from.

Amharic is the dominant and official language of Ethiopia; a semitic language much influenced by the Cushitic language with which Amhara people have been in close contact. With its unique characters, Amharic is used to write a wide variety of literature (fiction, poetry, plays, and magazines). Amharic script has been in use since 100 BC. It is the only indigenous African alphabet still in use today.

Ethiopic Alphabet - Ethiopic script has been in use since 100 BC. It's the only indigenous African alphabet still in use.

war, did Haile Selassie regain his throne when Ethiopians with the help of British and South African troops beat the Italians. In 1945 Ethiopia became a charter member of the United Nations, and was federated with Eritrea in 1952.

As the 1960’s progressed, Haile Selassie introduced many reforms, but unrest continued and demands for far greater reforms were vocalized. By 1974 the gradual coup escalated fully and a group of military officers seized control of the government. It is believed that Selassie’s failure to properly deal with long lingering drought that periodically occurred in northern Ethiopia, particularly the drought of 1973-74, was the reason for his downfall from power.

In the North, Ethiopia is known for its droughts and famines, especially the mid 1980’s famine that resulted in attempts from the Western world to supply aid to the people of Ethiopia. Despite much work to reform the nation’s agricultural system, the problem of famine still exists, particularly in times of drought. The country is dependent on rainfall to raise crops, and another drought, in 2000-2001 affected more than 10 million Ethiopians, with more than 50, 000 people dying from hunger. Sadly, sometimes, however these tragedies are all that Westerners are knowledgeable on when asked about the great nation of Ethiopia. It should be written here then, that Ethiopia, with all of it’s ancient and medieval history and splendor, is a country that supports an amazing ecosystem, replete with some of the most amazing wild animals in the world, including many species that are unique to Ethiopia alone!

It was due to the rarity and the danger to the population of the Walia Ibex that the park was given a listing on the World Heritage Sites 'Sites in Danger' list. This park is accessible by road from Gondar, and visitors can have access to some modest accommodations while visiting this exciting part of Ethiopia's landscape.

Both inside the national parks, as well as outside these designations, an incredible variety of animals exist, animals that often live in the animated imaginations of Western children as they read about them in books, watch them on television and view them in animated movies. Luckily the animals do exist outside of these medium, and roam throughout parts of Ethiopia. Such creatures include leopards, lions, cheetahs, giraffes, elephants and rhinoceroses to name but a few. Other famous animals, often featured on televised animal kingdom specials live in the country, including antelopes, gazelles, the horse like stripped zebra, buffalos, many varieties of monkey and baboons, and the infamous hyena!