In the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, live five million people, from who three million arrived since the 1991 revolution. The city was only founded in  1887 , and was nearly abandoned due to a lack of fuel-wood until the introduction of eucalypts to the area. It's a huge and sprawling place, with very few street signs... although the main shopping strip, Churchill Ave, is labeled.

The city's Ethnographic Museum is an ideal place to start learning about Ethiopia's rich ethnic diversity. It has an impressive array of religious crosses, triptychs and murals, as well as Haile Selassies's bedroom and bathroom. The National Museum is much smaller, but it does have the fossils of the 3.5-million-year-old 'Lucy', perhaps our earliest ancestor.

Africa Hall is the headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and was designed as a monument to the African independence. Its huge and richly coloured stained-glass windows, by Ethiopian artist Afewerk Tekle, portray the history and diversity of Africa's people. If you'd like to see more of Tekle's work, visit the Giorgis Cathedral, built in 1896  to commemorate Ethiopia's victory over the invading Italians. Addis Ababa's Mercato is the largest market in East Africa. It's a sprawling 'mess' of open-air stalls, where you can buy anything from vegetables to gold jewellery.