Traveling the Northern Historical Circuit

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(Ruta writing) Taking advantage of the children’s extended school Christmas break, our family set out to explore the treasures of northern Ethiopia. It’s written that 90% of the tourists that visit Ethiopia travel the northern circular highway to visit Ethiopia’s historical landmarks, many of which have been designated as UNESCO world historical sites. We’ll write more specific blogs about our adventures, but here are some highlights:
- Marveling at 11 fascinating rock-hewn churches of Lalibela. These mostly connected large churches were carved out of rock. Even each of children shake their heads in amazement at the wonder of these 12th century churches.
- Exploring real tombs from 1AD in Axum, a city that headed an extensive enmpire for 1000 years. It was amazing to view the tombs, ruins, pagan stelae, juxtaposed with regular life being lived not that differently than it was 2000 years ago.
- Riding camels in the desert
- Camping in the huge, imposing, breathtaking Simien mountains. The scenery and evening cold is imprinted in our memories.
- Viewing troops of a hundred gelada baboons digging in rhythmic unison, foraging for their food.
- Walking through Gondar’s 17th century castles, rebuilt by UNESCO using the original techniques
- Relaxing with friends around Lake Tana and visiting one of the 30 monasteries there.

So we saw amazing, unforgettable sites, but unfortunately, we also lived through challenges described in the next blog entry.

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