Ethiopia: Historic Route and Sacred Mountains

descriptionDescription

Ethiopia is a country unlike any other in Africa. Never colonized, with its own alphabet, calendar and one of the world's oldest Christian traditions, this itinerary takes you along the legendary Historic Route of the country's north. The journey starts in Addis Ababa, the diplomatic capital of Africa, where the National Museum houses Lucy, the hominid skeleton over three million years old that changed our understanding of human evolution. From there you fly to Bahir Dar, on the shores of Lake Tana, Ethiopia's largest and the source of the Blue Nile, sprinkled with ancient Orthodox monasteries on remote islands. A few kilometers away, the imposing Blue Nile Falls — known as Tis Issat, 'smoking water' — will take your breath away with their thunderous flow. In Gondar awaits the 'African Camelot', a walled compound with 17th-century castles reminiscent of medieval Europe but with a distinctly Ethiopian character. The Simien Mountains National Park, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, offers some of the most spectacular scenery on the continent: peaks above 13,000 ft, deep valleys and the unique chance to walk among troops of geladas, the so-called 'bleeding-heart baboons', an endemic species. Lalibela is Ethiopia's spiritual jewel: eleven monolithic churches dug downward into volcanic rock in the 12th century, connected by tunnels and passageways, still places of pilgrimage and prayer today. The route culminates in Axum, the ancient capital of the Aksumite kingdom, where mysterious granite obelisks rise and where, according to tradition, the Ark of the Covenant is kept.