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Harar
No
journey along Ethiopia’s great historic route would be
complete without a visit to the medieval walled city of Harar,
which stands among green mountains (at an elevation of 1885
meters) on the east wall of the great Rift Valley 500 km from
Addis Ababa and near to the Somali border.
Harar
was founded between the 7th and the 11th century. In the sixteen
century Harar, under sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad,
became the capital of an independent Muslim kingdom. In the
same century the great walls with five gates surrounding Harar
were built to keep out powerful neighbouring hostile groups.
In the nineteenth century Harar was incorporated into Ethiopia’s
growing Empire.
Harar
has for centuries been the main centre for Islamic learning
and culture in Ethiopia, and a prosperous centre for caravan
trade linked by trade routes with the rest of Ethiopia, the
Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the outside world.
Harar is considered by some to be the fourth holiest Muslim
city in the world with its around 90 mosques three of which
date from the 10th century, and 102 shrines located in a small
city of less than one square mile.
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The
Hyena man is considered to be a tourist attraction of Harar; for
a few dollars you can see or even experience feeding the hyenas
in the evening. This long-standing tradition of feeding the carnivores
at night began in 1960.
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Harar
has an ethnically complex population made up of Adares, the indigenous
highland Ethiopian People of this region who speak a Semitic language
related to Amharic, Arabs, Oromos and Somalis from the plains. This
cultural diversity is best expressed in the old market as a centre of
the city where tall, graceful maidens in long, flowering, extravagantly
coloured dresses come to barter and buy amongst the elegant Moorish
archways.
Rightly
renowned for its intricately worked jewellery of silver, gold and amber,
Harrari's Magalo Gudo market is also a centre of beautiful basket of
woven grass, decorative wall mats and bright shawls, as well as fruit,
vegetables, spices and grains of the province and a warren of streets.
Travellers may wander on narrow, cobbled alleyways twisting from the
market until they reach one of the five gates in the city wall, or visit
the former house of Haile Selassie that is momentarily used by a healer,
who by using herbs is able cure lots of diseases, or else enter an original
Harari house, beautifully painted and sculptured.
The
French poet Arthur Rimbaud has lived in Harar as a
trader in the nineteen century, and now travellers may visit his place
of living called “Rimbaud house” which is an impressive,
beautiful mansion in restoration.
Harar
is also famous for its distinctive, natural processed coffee, that has
got the same name.
Harar
Jugol has been included in the World Heritage List in 2006 by UNESCO
due to its cultural heritage.
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