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Score Ethiopia

Guide to Ethiopia

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Ethiopia is a land of contrasts in so many ways and this is particularly noticeable in its cities, towns and villages.

Although up-to-date figures are hard to come by, the country has few large cities by modern standards. Addis Ababa, the capital in the centre of the country, has a population of about a million and a half and boasts one of the finest hotels on the African continent and a thriving modern international airport.

Yet many of its public buildings are looking tired and worn and greatly in need of modernisation. Its wide public avenues and arterial roads contrast greatly with the impoverished housing just behind them where running water and decent waste facilities are still hard to find.

Dire Dawa is the second city in population terms with a million inhabitants. It is situated over to the east of the country, halfway along the only railway line that Emperor Menelik had built at the beginning of the 20th century to link Addis Ababa with the port of Djibouti.

The modern part of the town shows careful geometric planning and has good basic facilities as it was built from scratch by the railroad constructors and for many years remained the terminus from Addis while further funds were sought to continue the line to the sea.

Gondar is the third city of Ethiopia, situated just north of Lake Tana and the capital of the country for about two hundred years from 1636. Today, the glories of ancient Gondar are very hard to find. It was sacked by the Dervishes in the 19th century and its present centre is largely Italian built and is dusty and run-down. In the last few years things have been looking up, with badly needed improvements to water and waste systems and steady upgrading of main central buildings.

Yet it still looks and feels like a country town with a large majority of its people clustered densely around the market area in very simple and basic dwellings. Only its impressive and isolated Royal Enclosure and various other occasional ruined ancient buildings hint at the grandeur that was once Gondar.

Other urban areas in Ethiopia with populations in excess of half a million include Bahar Dar, on the southern edge of Lake Tana, the administrative centre of its area and an impressively laid out and attractive town, Mekele in the far north, the well-maintained centre of the Tigray region of the country with distinct Italian influences in its architecture and design, and Harar, very close to Dire Dawa in the east, the fourth holiest Moslem city in the world, and a colourful ancient centre with romantic 19th century connections with the great adventurer Sir Richard Burton and the poet Rimbaud.

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