Heritage with Related Tags
Tiya
Tiya is the most important of about 160 archaeological sites discovered so far in the Sodo region south of Addis Ababa. The site contains 36 monuments, including 32 stone tablets with symbols, most of which are difficult to decipher. They are relics of an ancient Ethiopian culture whose age is still uncertain.
Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela
This 13th-century "New Jerusalem" consists of 11 medieval monumental cave churches located in the mountains of central Ethiopia, near a traditional village of round dwellings. Lalibela is the holiest site for Ethiopian Christianity and remains a site of pilgrimage and devotion.
Konso Cultural Landscape
The Konso Cultural Landscape is an arid heritage site in the Konso Highlands of Ethiopia, consisting of stone-walled terraces and fortified settlements. It exemplifies a living cultural tradition that has adapted to an arid and hostile environment over 21 generations (over 400 years). The landscape demonstrates the shared values, social cohesion and engineering knowledge of its communities. The site also features anthropomorphic wooden statues – grouped to represent respected members of their communities and particularly heroic events – that are living witnesses to a funerary tradition that is in danger of disappearing. Stone monuments in the town express a complex system of marking the succession of generations of leaders.
Aksum
The ruins of the ancient city of Aksum are located near Ethiopia's northern border. This was the heart of ancient Ethiopia, when the Kingdom of Aksum was the most powerful state between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Persian Empire. These vast ruins date from the 1st to the 13th century AD and include huge obelisks, giant stelae, royal tombs and the remains of an ancient castle. Ethiopian emperors were still crowned in Aksum, long after its political decline in the 10th century.
Simien National Park
Over the years, the Ethiopian highlands have undergone massive erosion, creating one of the most spectacular landscapes in the world, with jagged peaks, deep valleys and cliffs rising to 1,500 metres. The park is home to some of the most rare animals, such as gelada baboons, Simien foxes and the Walia ibex (a type of goat found nowhere else in the world).