The Capital's and Entoto's Contemporary History

Pinterest: Abyssinia, the Historical Ethiopia
Ethiopia's Contemporary History

The Capital's and Entoto's Contemporary History

Emperor Menelik (Minilik) Entoto Palace Addis Ababa

'' From the late 1870s, Menelik began to show an increasing interest in the region in which Addis Ababa is situated and headquartered the royal camp at several sites in the area. His first major settlement was established on the slopes on Mount Wuchacha, west of the present settlement, but he soon moved northwards and set up his camp near the summit of Entoto Mountain, a choice determined by strategic considerations. Here he erected a palace''...

The Historic Church on Entoto's

 High Plateau

''The next important building to be constructed at Entoto was the church of Maryam, a circular structure, the foundations which were laid in 1885. Menelik, it is said himself participated in the building's work, and on occasion travelled with his consort, Queen Taytu, to Mount Managacha to the west where he helped to prepare massive squared roof beams which were then carried dozens of kilometres by groups of four or five soldiers". 

Entoto Maryam Church (43)

A Historic Site on the High Plateau

  Entoto Maryam Church (43), Former Capital, 
  Emperor Palace, Museum. 

The Capital's Historical Location

Entoto Maryam (43), the old Capital's central area, is located on the high table of this historic mountain. Furthermore, the historical site of Entoto Maryam (43), with its museum and Palace, rises just above Entoto Park [Z] on the same mountain road.

The Landscape of Entoto Maryam

After passing all the fascinating facilities of Entoto Park [Z], Entoto Maryam (43) dominates just above and allures to a vast high plateau. Except for the historic and quaint mountain town with restaurants, this high plateau offers an inviting and family-friendly landscape.

Google:   Entoto Maryam Church (43),  

 

The Former Capital's Location

Museum, Restaurants and Palace

This elevated plateau is extremely inviting and suitable for
those interested in culture and is also excellent for
pleasant family walks in historical surroundings.
Google Maps: Palace Of Emperor Minilik and
 Empress Taitu 1883. (Photo by David Stanley)

Palace Of Emperor Minilik and Empress Taitu 1883

With accessible highland trails, this high plateau offers surprisingly gentle terrain in reasonably close contact with great views over the landscape beneath, including the fashionable and cultural facilities with activities of Entoto Park (Z). Within this magnificent highland landscape, Entoto Maryam (43) dominates the area just above Entoto Park (Z), which entices with its attractions, perfect for the youth to enjoy or for the family the grand landscape itself to explore, all within reach of this former and historical Capital, Complete with museum and palace.

A Lovely Landscape for the Family

Except for the historic and quaint mountain town of Entoto Maryam (43), with its restaurants, museum, and palace, this highland location offers a peaceful, undulating landscape with well-accessible trails. Except for the site's gentle and graceful landscape, the vastness of this high plateau indeed provides a wealth of ideas for families interested in culture and history, as well as activities and excursions that extend beyond sight and imagination.

Entoto Maryam (Restaurant): Weynishet Kurs Bet

https://www.addismap.com/p-243598/weynishet-kurs-bet

Phone: +251 091 182 5070

Entoto Maryam (Restaurant): Kelemua Kurs

https://www.addismap.com/p-278032/kelemua-kurs

Phone: +251 011 380  164 

Historical Background

"It was at this church of Maryam that Menelik was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in November 1889, and an effigy of the old monarch can still be seen on its walls. ''(Hancoch et al. 1983, pg102.) But the establishment of the Capital on the slopes of Mount Entoto did not turn out well: ''Entoto, as Menelik's Capital, rapidly acquired a considerable population. At the beginning of the century, the British game-hunter and ethnographer, P.H.G. Powel-Cotton, described it as ''a populous city'', while his compatriot, Herbert Vivian, believed that it ''must have comprised 50,000 souls".

Activities and Recreation

A Cosy and Cultural Excursion for the Family

The historical site of Entoto Maryam (43) rises just above Entoto Park [Z] and on the same mountain road. Except for the comforts of this quaint and historical Capital's settlement at Entoto Maryam (43), with a museum, Palace and restaurants, this site's high table offers grand and inviting views with great opportunities for family excursions. At Entoto Maryam (43), a high plateau in the gentle landscape is evident, presenting efficiently accessible facilities and trails.

A Historical Capital On the High Plateau

After passing all the fascinating facilities of Entoto Park [Z], Entoto Maryam (43) dominates just above and allures thanks to its closeness to cultural charm and Nature's mystique on this vast high plateau. Since Entoto Maryam (43), located in the old Capital's central area, is situated on the high plateau, it also offers a more extended excursion to the points (34) - (42) - (14) - (16).

''The site, which had initially been selected as a fortress, was not suitable as a capital for more peaceful times. Being situated on a rugged mountain, it was poorly supplied with provisions, which could be brought up only after an exhausting walk. Food, as Ilg reports, was often scarce, and wood and water were also difficult to obtain. Entoto's climate during the rainy season was, moreover, far from pleasant, for it suffered from many storms. A French traveller, Jules Borelli, states that it was a place of much lightning, thunder and fog, while his compatriot, Charles Michelli, remarked that, ''exposed to the wind, difficult of access, and without drinking water,'' the town was ''an impossible capital''.'' (Ibid, pg 103)

Entoto Natural Park Mountain Crest is a Waterway 

Divider to the Nile River and the Mediterranean Sea

The Waterfall: Blue Nile, towards the Capital
The Highlands and their Historical Waters

Ethiopia's Historic Waterways

Entoto Natural Park and its Historical Water
The topographical configuration of Entoto Natural Park's mountain crest has a curious result: two raindrops that simultaneously moisten the soil of Entoto's mountain crest, only a centimetre apart, will have quite different destinies. After a long journey through the River Nile, one waterway will reach the Mediterranean Sea. In contrast, the other watershed will pass through Addis Ababa, eventually evaporating in the Danakil Desert, as the Awash River does not reach the sea.

The Ethiopian Highland is the Legendary Water Provider

However, this primary Ethiopian source of the Nile River is only one of several Ethiopian rivers that contribute to the total water in the Nile. Consequently, the total amount of water delivered from the Ethiopian Highlands to the Nile is enriched by more waterways than only the water from the Blue Nile, which is the primary contributor and fundamental historical source of the legendary Nile River.

The History of Ethiopia's Indigenous Vegetation

A Heritage Of  Tremendous Potential

The History of the Environment

 An Ancient Legacy of Water and Plants 

The prosperity of civilization in different cultures and parts of the World indicates an evident connection between an in-depth knowledge of biology and the specific culture's potential for development. Without a doubt, a healthy relationship is seen with this rule, even in other sciences. Still, it is particularly evident in biology, as it is closely related to human health and well-being. However, the insidious hierarchical governing terror of the past caused severe scars among many nations, inflicting humiliation in severe starvation and fearful aversions, thus damaging the population's most critical needs for a safe stimulus in daily life and duties.

The Ancient Heritage and the Loss Of Civilizations

Corrupt Legacy in the Battle Against Nature

Destructive heritage within many of history's autocratic clans

 gave their cultures a treacherous shift with a legacy of an

 obscure genetic inflow, often leading to prolonged and

extreme poverty with conflicts in governing terror.

Evolutionary anthropology

 

A Lost High Cultural Era of Humanity

Directed by this despotism in the past, the political rule of terror created a life-threatening situation against the inhabitants of these original wealthy civilizations. In their desperation to support their families, very few dared, and even fewer survived their attempts to undertake the necessary technology or work to harness these water masses and benefit the population during heatwaves and droughts. Therefore, this law of silent terror effectively and continuously deteriorated the soil layers' natural strength until this country's ground no longer produced abundant crops. Thus, the lack of basic knowledge and empathy within many early despotic autocracies initiated the decline of these rich cultures of the past, ultimately causing irreversible destruction and erosion of the land. 

Ethiopia's Natural Ethics and Historical Landmarks

The Nation's Commitment To Nature Restoration

Benefits of the Establishment of the Park

A Historical Restoration Commitment

Ethiopia's obvious duty is a genuinely outstanding commitment, as the revival of serene dreams has found the country's true cradle by restoring a landscape that reflects a nation's natural, noble foundation and pride. However, the previously neglected indigenous Nature demands knowledge and devoted work before evident healing of the country's Nature and freshwater conservation. Yet, despite the rewarding work with Nature in a gorgeous landscape, it's often associated with incredible frustration to recreate healthy Indigenous biotopes by replanting native young saplings on eroding mountain slopes and exposed high plateaus. 

Ethiopia's Historical Highland Nature  

The Country's Precious Water

This image forms the basis for understanding
 the actual water-bearing body, where Nature's
importance for the livelihood of its people
 depends on the totality of the harboured
Water in a healthy Highland landscape.
 Study of the water's complexity

Ethiopia's Natural Water Production

Ethiopia's endemic forests indeed appear intricately linked to the country's prehistoric ecology and geological heritage, thus also in a critical connection to the country's original soils, the home of the natural and evolutionary processes that shaped the background for the livelihoods and inhabitants. The creation of the ground for the trees derives its importance from the endemic decomposition of leaves and twigs. This genetically optimised process of indigenous tree ground composting, including the leaves and twigs from the Ethiopian forest, was vital in hindering the initiation of erosive torrents. It gave the trees their foundation, thus allowing the soil's structure the required time to absorb the deluges in this mountainous highland landscape.

The Natural Water Bodies of the Highland

Historical ignorance of the endemic Nature severely weakened many cultures' original soil systems, which are essential for leading and assisting rainwater to the natural underground aquifers. Hence, the severe reduction in the remaining soil's ability to retain moisture significantly reduced the water delivered to the natural aquifers, thereby decreasing citizens' chances of obtaining clean household water. Indeed, a history of introducing incompatible foreign trees, with their detrimental effect on erosion, raises hindrances to the restoration of indigenous species. The Eucalyptus Problem

A Noble Origin of Health and Prosperity

The Forgotten Cradle of Wealth & Beauty

The Native Podocarpus & Rosa abyssinica

A Legacy from Times of Natural Wealth

These endemic trees, which are scarce at Entoto, struggle to survive in the toxic environment created by the eucalyptus. The eroded lands caused by the eucalyptus' toxin-deformed effect have interrupted the endemic Podocarpus tree's reproduction ability. A century ago, the international scientific community was unaware of environmental toxicity.

Natural Soils and Roots of the Past

With their dense network of roots, the original Ethiopian trees formed a reinforcing, tangled indigenous vegetation with a prehistoric quality of tremendous strength, derived from the past aeons of evolution. This urgent situation calls for restoration and further scientific examination.

Secrets From a Time Lost in Shadows and Turmoil

A Forgotten and Forbidden Historical Past

Humanity's Dangerous Legacy

The Artworks: Leonardo da Vinci

A Lost High Cultural Era of Humanity's History

Indeed, the opportunities for advancing humankind's cultural cradle endure long periods of direct and subconscious censorship of nefarious rigidity and even aeons in degeneration due to deeply corrupt reasons in a legacy of outright bestial-induced elements hierarchically enforced from an early time in humankind's history. Therefore, well concealed behind generations of enforced censorship, the subconscious tries to endure the pressure in a sensitive balance, even when encountering legacies of bestialities from the morbid selection of the past. Thus, due to the deceived persona of the population, their cultural behaviour becomes corrupted, thereby obstructing and obscuring the paths and visions of humankind.

A Humanity Subconsciously Behind Bars

However, behind the bars of humankind's cage, made of fabricated obstacles and static social norms, prevails nothing more than a culturally enforced inheritance where the human culture endures. Thus, humankind's civilizations throughout history have often had to endure long periods of psychological and physiological torment in cycles of repeating cataclysmic paradigms and personal occurrences of corrosive agony about what is wrong, where they usually never find the natural source of their discomfort or its underlying cause. 

The Importance of the Guardian from Mother Trees

Reinforcement of Native Roots Against Erosion

The recreation of Nature's shielding functions needs, thus, the devoted work of restoration to regain the guardian effect from a lost indigenous forest with its endemic vegetation of shielding undergrowth. Regarding Ethiopia's unique climate, which varies by season, with months of heavy downpours over the country's characteristic rugged landscape, followed by months of blistering sunshine, difficulties naturally arise for the survival of planted saplings. Nature's evolutionary optimization in sheer strength and water absorption, found in the original native vegetation, is thus often impossible to recreate with a simple planting of fragile young seedlings in a ground where essential protection and soil stability have regrettably perished.

___________________________________________________________________________________

The Childhood Cradle of Entoto's Slopes

Sir Wilfred Thesiger

Sir Wilfred Thesiger received the wilderness from his childhood cradle at Entoto and intensified his exposure to Nature's closeness during the following years of dangerous missions. With captivating stories from almost forgotten Abyssinia, the author's tales emerge, marked by humble sincerity and irresistible understated beauty, where the most astonishing experiences nevertheless emerge as glowing traces between the lines.

The author's writings now directly address these remarkable events. In the initial contact with the literature of this author and a noteworthy legend, a warm, friendly narrator appears. The book one reads is thus captivating enough to become part of the reader's own emotional experience.