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Ethiopia is located at the crossroads
of the African and Arab worlds.
Its people speak eighty-three different languages.
The land of Ethiopia once attracted the trading ships
of Egyptian pharaohs.
It's believed to have the longest archeological record
on earth.
Many think of Ethiopia as being little more
than a dry and barren desert.
But much of the country is lush and green.
Its mountains contain wildlife
and a network of ancient churches.
Ethiopia is potentially a rich country.
But many Ethiopians earn little more
than one hundred U.S. dollars per year.
The nation has experienced a number of droughts
over a period of many years.
Still, Ethiopia is a special place.
As one of the world's oldest Christian civilizations,
it's a land rich in culture, history and tradition.
It's believed that Ethiopia was present at the dawn of creation.
Surely, the country will be heard from again.
Ethiopia is nearly twice the size of Texas
and about the same size as South Africa.
Formerly known as Abyssinia,
Ethiopia's neighbors include Sudan to the west
and Somalia to the east.
Ethiopia is home to the Great Rift Valley.
The valley is a split in the Earth's surface.
The nation's economy is dominated by agriculture.
Its most widely spoken language is called Amharic.
There are more than thirty Old Testament references
to Ethiopia, or "Cush," as it was called by the Hebrews.
The country has also been linked
to the mysterious Queen of Sheba.
[Music]
Home to the Blue Nile which joins the White Nile in Sudan,
much of northern Ethiopia is blanketed
by lush, green mountains.
The country's highlands supply the Nile River Basin
with most of its water supply.
An area with amazing birdlife and great waterfalls,
northern Ethiopia has back roads that lead to ancient churches,
reachable only by foot or on the back of a mule.
Its mountain scenery would be an ideal place for making a film.
One northern Ethiopian city is called Gonder.
It's a beautiful town full of stone castles
and ivy-laced archways.
Gonder was once located at the crossroads
of three ancient caravan routes.
It was Ethiopia's capital for more than two-hundred years.
[Music]
Gonder's horse drawn wagons feel like something
from a small French town.
But the style of the city's buildings is more Italian
than French.
The Italians did not colonize Ethiopia, as the French
and British did in other parts of Africa.
But they did have a presence in the country,
especially during the nineteen thirties.
[Music]
Gonder has forty-four churches.
Its most famous is called "The Royal Enclosure,"
located in the town's center.
The building was struck by an earthquake in 1704
and by British bombs during World War Two.
Luckily, it's still standing today.
Gonder today is a mix of old and new.
Its small pastry shops serve coffee and fruit juices
and for breakfast, eggs fried in red chili sauce.
A contest was recently held in Russia
to name the world's best historical towns.
Of the twenty-six considered, Gonder finished second.
In recent years, many
of Gonder's residents have left Ethiopia.
They have moved to Toronto, Canada, Europe, Boston,
Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C.
[Music]
Two hundred miles to the southeast
of Gonder we find Lalibela, the jewel in Ethiopia's crown.
Ethiopians call the city, "the eighth wonder of the world."
At nine thousand feet, Lalibela has a cool
and refreshing climate year round.
[Music]
Lalibela is home to twelve eight-hundred year old churches.
Some are carved into volcanic rock while others are connected
by a series of darkened tunnels.
At daybreak, church ceremonies begin.
Priests light beeswax candles and burn incense.
Worshippers use drums, bells and rattles
and can sometimes be seen dancing.
The city's religious culture dates back
to the early Middle Ages.
It has changed little in eight hundred years.
[Singing, Music]
One of Lalibela's young students is named Getachew Kebede.
He hopes to become a medical doctor.
When not studying, Getachew enjoys showing travelers
around his amazing city, Lalibela.
When a family like Getachew's entertains guests,
they usually begin with a coffee ceremony.
The ceremony can take as long as one hour.
Getachew's mom begins by washing the sun-dried beans before
placing them on a griddle.
The beans are then ground
into a very fine powder before being placed
in a clay pot of water to boil.
The coffee is served in three ounce cups,
usually strong and black.
Coffee production is very important to Ethiopia's economy.
It accounts for more than half of Ethiopia's exports
and involves one quarter of the nation's people.
[Music]
The national dish in Ethiopia is called injera.
Made from a grain called tef, injera is a bread
that looks like foam rubber.
It's used to scoop spiced meat, vegetables and rice by hand.
Ethiopian food is not only popular in Ethiopia.
Ethiopian restaurants can be found all over the world.
[Music]
In eastern Ethiopia, we find the walled city of Harar.
It's the fourth most important Islamic site in the world,
after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.
Once a slave depot, Harar overlooks the hills of Somalia.
The city is partly Christian and partly Islamic.
It has eighty-seven mosques in its old quarter alone.
Harar was once a trading center for India,
Africa and the Middle East.
Salt caravans from Somalia arrived at local marketplaces
where one could buy everything
from fine cloth to elephant tusks.
Even today, a visit to Harar can feel like an experience
out of the Arabian Nights.
[Music]
An ancient legend once predicted that the first Christian
to enter Harar would lead to the city's destruction.
This has led Harar's citizens to be careful about strangers.
Many believe that this legend still effects people's
behavior today.
The Ethiopian New Year is celebrated in September.
Ethiopians mark the occasion by wearing new clothes,
slaughtering animals, singing and dancing.
[Music]
The capital of Ethiopia is Addis Ababa, which is located
at an altitude of seven thousand feet.
The city's name means "new flower" in the Amharic language.
Addis is Africa's third largest capital, after Cairo,
Egypt and Lagos, Nigeria.
[Music]
Despite being close to the equator,
the city is often chilly and damp, due to its high elevation.
With a population of more than five million,
Addis Ababa is home to Ethiopia's best hotels,
theatres and universities.
It's a magnet for students, tourists
and business people alike.
The city is also full of crowded sidewalks and heavy traffic.
In Addis Ababa, it's often helpful
to expect the unexpected.
Outdoor cafes are an important part of the city's culture.
They are a major meeting place for friends
who enjoy lively conversation or just a chance
to watch the world go by.
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Twice a week, a small plane flies from Addis Ababa
to a small southern town called Jinka.
The town's airport is partly a cow pasture
and partly a soccer field.
When rains are heavy,
the airplanes are sometimes unable to land.
Jinka is located in Ethiopia's Omo region.
It's an area of great diversity,
where more than forty different languages are spoken.
Some have called Omo "the last great wilderness
on the continent."
The southern plains of Ethiopia and the northern deserts
of Kenya are an area where people migrate from north
to south and east to west.
In Ethiopia, the groups have names like the Ari, the Banna
and the Hamer, to name only a few.
The size of each group might be a few thousand people or more
than one hundred thousand.
Customs and languages do overlap
but each group has its own unique qualities as well.
One such group is called the Hamer,
numbering about thirty thousand.
The Hamer live in villages of about ten to fifteen huts each.
The huts are made of wood, mud and thatch
and on the inside are tidy and clean.
The Hamer take great pride in their cattle herds
but mostly practice agriculture, growing vegetables,
millet and cotton, not to mention wild honey.
Women wear copper bracelets
and leather skirts decorated with cowrie shells.
The iron bands around a woman's neck display information
about the wealth and prestige of her husband.
Animal fat and ochre are rubbed
into the hair for beautification.
This results in bright, copper colored strands.
While many villages in the Omo region have small daily markets,
most have one large market per week,
attracting people from far and wide.
For some, market day is the only day each week
when money can be earned.
The town of Jinka has only one doctor
and the nearest hospital is five hours away by road.
In the future, southern Ethiopia may experience great change.
Even today, forests are being ruined by charcoal operations
and the growing of mango trees.
A highway is being built
from the nation's capital, Addis Ababa.
Some believe that easier access to Omo will lead to development
and to the destruction of the very cultures
that make this region so unique.
For the moment, however, southern Ethiopia remains one
of Africa's hidden treasures.
[Music]
In Ethiopia, half the country's population is
under the age of twenty.
In some rural areas, parents are forced
to work fifty miles away from their children.
The families might only see each other twice a year.
The children are cared for by grandparents
and older brothers and sisters.
At the same time, many travel writers have been amazed
by Ethiopia.
Some believe that no other African country has so much
to offer, from its charming villages
to an almost endless number of hidden churches.
The progress of Ethiopia and its people, like Getachew
in Lalibela, will be an interesting one
to follow in years to come.
Ethiopia has a long, rich history.
Its people are both resourceful and diverse.
For those who take the time to explore Ethiopia,
the rewards will be plentiful.