Our Ethiopian Odyssey (2): why we are going there
So why are we going to Ethiopia?
Well, besides the fact that we love to visit different countries and experience different cultures and we have already been to so many of the more popular destinations, Ethiopia has a long history, so mysterious as to be almost mystical:
- The earliest known hominine fossils come from the Afar region of Ethiopia and are 4.5 million years old.
- The earliest known stone tools come from Gona in Ethiopia and are 2.5 million years old.
- The earliest known modern-looking human skulls come from the Omo basin in Ethiopia and are about 130,000 years old.
- Therefore Ethiopia is known as the cradle of humankind and ultimately we are all descended from the first humans who started to migrate out of Ethiopia around 100,000 years ago.
- It is said to be the home of the mysterious Ark of the Covenant, a chest described in the Book of Exodus as containing the tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandants were inscribed, which allegedly was transported from Jerusalem some 3,000 years ago.
- Ethiopians believe that their rulers were descended from Menelik, child of the union between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, so that their last emperor – Haile Selassie who was deposed in 1974 – was the Lion of Judah, while Rastafarians worldwide believe him to be a messianic figure.
- It is the only country in Africa to possess an alphabet more than 2,000 years old.
- Christianity was introduced to the country in the 4th century and, according to the Orthodox Church in Ethiopia, it has been a Christian country for at least 1600 years when in the 5th century the ‘Nine Saints’ – Syrian missionaries – spread the court religion of Christianity among the people.
- The ‘father of modern Ethiopia’ is a man called Amda Seyon (also known as Gebre Meskel) who ruled from 1314-1344. He vastly expanded the size of the Christian Empire through the use of force and his rule is considered something of a golden age for Ethiopia.
- Ethiopia still uses the Julian Calendar instead of the Gregorian Calendar (introduced in 1582) which means that it is currently seven years and 113 days behind most of the world and has a 13 month year (12 lunar months of 30 days and one further month of five or six days depending on the leap year).
- Except for a brief occupation by Mussolini’s Italy in 1935-1941, it is the only African country – except for tiny Liberia – which has never been colonised, so it is Africa’s oldest independent country with its culture intact and unspoilt by European contamination.