Timket

Timket, or Timkat, is Ethiopian language for Epiphany. Although the holiday commemorating Christ’s baptism in the River Jordan is observed by Christians all over the world, Timket is of special significance in Ethiopia. It is the most important and colourful event of the year.

The festival starts at Timket Eve, January 18, eleven days after the orthodox Christmas. Although the festival is largely religious, it has no lack of secular elements such as partying and match-making.According to the Ethiopian epic Kebra Negast, the Ark of the Covenant was abducted from Jerusalem to Ethiopia during the first millennium BC. Since then, it has become the most sacred element of the Ethiopian orthodox church.Early afternoon in the Timket Eve, the replicas of the Ark, covered by silks, are carried solemnly by priests from each church to the nearby body of water. Accompanying the procession are tens of thousands of church members and believers, chanting, dancing, drum-beating, horn-blowing, prayer-stick-waving and sistra(a simple musical instrument)-rattling. All in all, it resembles the scene described in the Old Testament.As evening falls, the priests and the pious believers participate in overnight vigil around the Arks until dawn. Then huge crowds gather around the water. After the chief priest blesses the water, the celebration reaches its climax. Many jump into the water, the rest are eager to get a splash. After the religious vows are renewed, some of the Arks are paraded back with the same celebrating fashion.The festival does not end until the third day, dedicated to the Archangel Mikael. With parade no less magnificent than the previous two days, the rest of the Arks are carried back to their respective churches.

Timket in the town of Gondar is undoubtedly the most interesting. The bath pool in the historical palace built by the Emperor Fasiladas during the 17th century stages a dramatic backdrop of the event, while the garden surrounding the pool provides believers a perfect ground for prayers and overnight vigil.

DALLOL DEPRESSION

One of the most important features of this region of Africa is resulted from faulting and cracking eastern side. This has caused the Great Rift Valley, which extends from the Middle East to Mozambique, passing in a north-south direction right through Ethiopia. This shearing of the earth’s surface occurred at the same time that the Arabian Peninsula, geologically a part of Africa, was sundered from the rest of the continent. Volcanic activity, which has continued until today, finds expression in volcanoes in Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression, as well as in the hot springs in many parts of the country.
Danakil region is one of the Earth’s hottest and most inhospitable places. Parts are more than 100 meters below sea level and noon time temperatures sour to above 50 ?. After the Rift opened, much of this area was flooded by the in-rushing waters of the Red-Sea, a flood that was subsequently stemmed by reshlava. Behind these barriers, the trapped in landsea began to evaporate-a process that is a most complete.

SOF OMAR CAVE

The Sof Omar cave system, 120 km east of Goba in Bale region, is one of the most spectacular and extensive underground caverns in the world. Formed by the Weyb River as it changed course in the distant past and carved a new channel through limestone foothills, the 16 km cave system is an extraordinary natural phenomenon of breathtaking beauty.
The dry, cool caves contain many marvels of natural architecture, including soaring pillars of stone 20 meters high, flying buttresses, fluted archways and tall airy vaults. Finally the river itself is reached, flowing through a deep gorge. You can explore the caves on foot, without special climbing equipment, but proper precautions have to be taken. Torches or other lighting are needed and another must is a map. The most direct route through the first part of the caves takes about an hour. The large central hall of Sof Omar, the chamber of Columns’- so named after the colossal limestone pillars that are it’s dominant feature-is one of the highlights of the cave system.

DEBRE DAMO

DEBRE Damo is unique and unforgettable although, as with most Ethiopian monasteries. Women are not allowed to enter it. Even so, there is a daunting obstacle to the monastery: the only means of access is a climb of twenty-five meters up a sheer cliff. Monks lower a safety rope, which visitors tie around their waists. Then they used a second, thicker rope to climb with. Some may reflect, as they make their way to the top, that because of this arduous, dangerous ascent the art treasures of Debre Damo have remained intact through the monastery’s 1400 tumultuous years of history.
The treasures include and extensive collection of illuminated manuscripts-among them the oldest surviving fragments of texts anywhere in Ethiopia-and intricate carvings on the beams and ceiling of the ancient church around which the monastery is built, and a large number of paintings.

TIYA STELAE

Tiya is one of the most attractive archaeological sites found in Ethiopia. The site is located 500 meters east of a small town called Tiya, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State. It contains 36 monuments, including 32 carved stelae on which symbols are engraved. The site had a funerary function, hence, the stelae are surrounded by scattered graves. It is registered in the World Heritage List of the UNESCO.

NEGASH MOSQUE

  

Negash is a small village located 60 km east of Mekele, the capital of Tigray Region. Anonymous with Islam as it is the place where the first mosque was constructed in Ethiopia. It also serves as enduring reminder of the warm welcome extended by the Ethiopian King of the time when those Muslims including the family of the prophet Mohammed fled persecution in their own land found refuge in Ethiopia during the early years of seventh century. Since then, Negash, has been a place of great historical and religious significance in a sense that it is a symbol of peaceful coexistence between Muslim and Christian religions.

ISLAM IN ETHIOPIA

Most of Ethiopia’s Muslims are Sunnis, members of the largest sect of Islam. Islam arrived early in Ethiopia. The Prophet himself instructed his followers to respect and protect Ethiopians. In 615, Muhammed’s wife and cousin sought refuge at Axum (Aksum) with a number of these followers. This group was fleeing from Mecca’s leading tribe, the reactionary Kuraysh, who sent emissaries to bring them back to Arabia, but the Negus Armah protected them.

An influx of immigrants and traders from Oman and Yemen during the following centuries increased the number of Muslims in Somalia, Eritrea and what is now Ethiopia. In the coastal areas, Islamic law gradually took root, and by the fourteenth century it was the basis for the official juridical code of some regions. This reflected political realities; most of the inhabitants of these eastern regions were now Muslims. Their coexistence with Christianity was not always an easy one, and the sultans who ruled over parts of Ethiopian territory sometimes came into open conflict with the Christian kings.

Yet, historians generally agree that the Muslim sultans in Ethiopia were tolerant of their Christian subjects; forced conversions were rare.
In 1668, an imperial decree was issued declaring that the Muslims (Jabarti) and Jews (Felasha) of Gonder would henceforth have to live apart from Christians, but they were allowed to practice their religion freely in their own quarter. Religious squabbles did not end there, but by the nineteenth century peaceful conditions were established which finally placed religious differences on a level secondary to peace and the popular interest. Political conflicts between Ethiopia and Somalia, and, more recently, between Ethiopia and Eritrea, are not based on religious differences per se.
Its Muslim Arab population has never been large, but Ethiopia has had historically close contact with Yemen and the Asir region of Saudi Arabia. Most of the Ethiopians in these countries are Muslims.
Estimates vary, but from 25 to 40 percent of Ethiopia’s population is Muslim. Islam can no longer be considered a “minority” religion in Ethiopia.

Sheikh Hussein

Sheikh Hussein is a village in south eastern Ethiopia, containing in Ethiopian Muslim eyes the most sacred place in that country: the tomb of the thirteenth century Sheikh Hussein, who introduced Islam to the Sidamo people who had lived in the area at the time, and is said to have performed many miracles. A number of these miracles have been recorded in a hagiography published in Cairo in the 1920s, entitled Rabi` al-Qulub. Although this village is now within the homelands of the Oromo people, it has continued to be the destination of approximately 50,000 pilgrims twice a year during the Muslim months of Hajj and Rabi` al-Awwal.

The extensive religious complex dedicated to the saint includes the village and the nearby valley of Kachamsare. In the 18th century, Emir `Abd al-Shakur ibn Yusuf of Harar constructed a shrine to the Baghdadi saint `Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani near the tomb of Sheikh Hussein, inside the shrine compound. A graveyard has also been consecrated as part of the complex.

Costums

Duty free items are allowed to visitors. However, there is a limit to the amount of items sold. 500cc (1 litter) of perfume, 1 litter of alcoholic liquors, 250 gram of tobacco, 100 cigarettes and 50 cigars are allowed to visitors to buy duty free. Professional articles and samples, including those imported by business men and commercial travelers, items like cameras (films), photographic equipment, radio equipment and sound recording apparatus, and equipment imported by foreign correspondents or any other specialized materials imported for professional use or supporting fire arms, are subject to special permit.

As regards items to take outside the country, visitors are allowed to take with them souvenir items not worth more than 500 birr (1 USD= 8.60 Birr) and wild life products that have been permitted to take by the relevant government authority.

Taxis

Taxis are stationed outside all the major hotels and at the airport. They have fixed rates and a receipt is given for the fare.

Airports

Excluding the Bole International Airport of Addis Ababa, there are ten asphalted Airports capable of handling Jet Airplanes, these are:

Arbaminch Airport	Gode Airport
Axum Airport	Gondar Airport
Bahrdar Airport	Jimma Airport
Diredawa Airport	Lalibela Airport
Gambella Airport	Mekele Airport