 In the Ethiopian
capital 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 lack of fuel wood until the introduction
of eucalypts to the area. It's a huge, sprawling place, with very
few street signs, although the main shopping strip, Churchill Ave,
is labelled.
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
3.5-million-year-old 'Lucy', perhaps our earliest ancestor.
Africa Hall is the headquarters of the United Nations
Ecomonic Commission for Africa, and was designed as a monument to
African independence. Its huge, richly coloured stained-glass windows,
by Ethiopian artist Afewerk Tekle, portray the history and diversity
of Africa's peoples. 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 everything from vegetables to gold jewellery.
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