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The Land
of thousand miles’, home of the Ark of Covenant, custodian of some
of the world’s oldest civilizations, a tourist Paradise,
beautiful, secretive, mysterious. Above all things, it is a country of
great antiquity, with a culture and traditions dating back more than
3,000 years- this is Ethiopia.
The travelers in Ethiopia
make a journey through time, transported by beautiful monuments and the
ruins of edifices built long centuries ago.
Religion
has always been a major influence in Ethiopia. Certainly no
country in Sub-Saharan Africa can trace its origins as far back. Ethiopia
is mentioned thirty-three times in the Bible and many times in Qura’an. Perhaps this is the reason why so many
visitors retrace the ‘historic route’, drawn by colorful
stories and fantastic tales to the land once know as Abyssinia.
The
well-defined ‘historic route’ through northern Ethiopia
forms the core of the country’s tourist industry. It is probably no
exaggeration to say that 98% of travelers to Ethiopia base the bulk of
their itinerary around this circuit, and rightly so. There is nothing in
Sub-Saharan Africa and in a sense nothing else
in the world that prepares the visitor for the wealth of historical and
cultural treasure, both ancient and living, contained in Northern Ethiopia. The Circuit pivots around four
cities in the North and walled city of Harer in the
east, all very different to others.
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The
landscape of the Danakil
seems carved from the infernos of hell and is reminder of the furies that
once ravaged this region, with volcanic cones rising above the scabs of
black lava. Earth tremors are frequent, and there are several
still-active volcanoes in the area. Surprisingly there is also wildlife
to be seen here, particularly Zebra and wild ass.
And
uninhabitable as this place may seem, it is nevertheless inhabited by
thousands of Afar nomads. Tempestuous, proud, and individualistic, they
live in small isolated groups and somehow manage to wrest a living-thanks
to the salt from this challenging and inhospitable wilderness. Using the
camel as their beast of burden, they also keep sheep, goats and cattle on
the edge of the Danakil desert or in the
vicinity of the Awash River, where
coarse grass grows.
Tours to the Danakil depression and Afar can be
arranged by Off-Road Ethiopia Tour either exclusively or in combination
with Historic route via surface as it is accessible in two ways.
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