Ethiopia: Africa’s Overlooked Gem
Ethiopia is rich with historic and cultural treasures and deserves to be more recognized as a travel mecca. Ethiopian people are friendly and, due to the scarcity of tourists, often eager to converse with foreigners. They tend to like to be photographed as well. While there I was sometimes approached by people who asked me to take their photo. Of course I was happy to do so.
If you fly into Ethiopia you’ll invariably arrive in Addis Ababa, the capitol. ‘Addis’ as Ethiopians refer to it, is by far the largest city in the country. It’s centrally located and acts as the hub of travel throughout the country. I returned to it a few times in the 5 weeks I was in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is no tourist hot spot but of those that do venture here, most head north from Addis. It’s there that the most of the notable historic sites are located. These include the rock hewn churches of Lalibela, the monasteries of Lake Tana, the castles of Gonder, and the gigantic stone stelae of the ancient kingdom of Axum. I was fortunate to have enough time to be able to travel in all 4 cardinal directions from Addis.
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