Gondar is One of the Beautiful Heights in Ethiopia!
The old imperial palace and castle in Gondar in Ethiopia's northern highlands dates back to 1636 when Emperor Fusillades made Gondar Ethiopia's capital.
Now the capital of the Amhara region 3 is Bahir Dar. Gonder, Begemder, Gojjam and Lasta were the provinces that existed during the imperial era.
However, the history of the capital city of Gonder in mythology goes back much further, as such mythologies could claim.
The following lines are about this city, the recent climate change it faces and some historical points. If you have any comment, or if you want to write about any other beautiful sites in Ethiopia, please use the form on the bottom of the page to write it. Thanks.
This is also an invitation for Ethiopian people to write about any city in their country. Political views go to pages about Ethiopia, here.
Situated in northwestern Ethiopia north of Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, Gonder emerged during the 17th century as part of the Abyssinian Empire. It was the capital of Ethiopia from 1635 to 1867. There are some other capitals in every reign such as Shewa, which is also an Amharic capital.
Some sources claim Ethiopia to be one of the world's oldest countries in the world and say it has existed as an independent nation for over 3000 years, except for a brief period from 1936 to 1941, when the Italian fascist, Mussolini, occupied it.
According to the myth of the royal dynasty, the royal family is able to trace its lineage all the way back to the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. The hereditary rulers called themselves the Solomonic Emperors of Ethiopia, a line unbroken until the reign of the last Emperor, Haile Selassie 1.
However, during a history of civil wars between different emperors in the north (Tigray) and the Amharic regions, the influence of the European colonialism has streamlined the political power and played the main role to help the last emperor, Haile Selassie 1 maintain his system.
The Ethiopian revolutionary people deposed the late emperor in 1974, when the students of the universities engaged in hard struggle to oust the imperial regime, but it the army stole the revolution and changed it unfortunately to dictatorship, instead of streaming the line of the people by those believed to be revolutionary socialist bias in Ethiopia.
Although chances have given the lead to some military junta in 1975 to overwrite the Ethiopian history for almost 16 years, another multi-revolutionist action between Eritrea and Ethiopia swept the country in 1991. Thanks to the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
However, both of them have changed to autocratic systems, since the two main characters remain in power in both, Eritrea and Ethiopia since 1991.
Please read more about those political events on the links above, since this page is only about Gondar.
The earliest human remains in East Africa ever found were excavated in the area of Gondar. Scientists believe Homo sapiens (modern humans) migrated from Africa and some of them say from Ethiopia, and first walked out into the world around 150,000 years ago.
The old royal castle in Gondar remains one of Ethiopia's main tourist attractions. Today, Gondar as a modern university town, with its 200,000 inhabitants is the biggest city in the populous Amhara region, where most of the 17 million inhabitants in the entire area around are smallholder farmers of cattle, sheep, goats and poultry. The population in Ethiopia reaches more than 82 million in 2009 estimates.
The highland areas are located at altitudes between 1,500 and 2,500 meters above sea level so the climate is fairly cool for this part of Africa. It has kept most of the population safe from Ethiopia's most threatening disease, malaria, which kills 160,000 Ethiopians in lowland areas every year, and infects millions of people.
Temperatures are expected to rise and precipitation to increase in the northern highlands. If this happens, it will cause the mosquitoes that transmit malaria to seek new breeding grounds in the high altitude area of Amhara and other highland regions, spreading the disease to millions of people.
Between 2050 and 2080, the highlands of Amhara region and the East African highlands as a whole could become a high-risk areas for malaria with a consequent significant loss of life and economic damages.
If you want to write about Gondar or any other beautiful places in Ethiopia, please use the form below. However, to write about politics, or economy, or other relevant articles to these topics go to the HOA's Political Scene Home. Thanks.
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