Discovering Africa: Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a country of extraordinary natural beauty, great potential and historical and cultural interest.

Located between the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, in a region fondly referred to as the “Horn of Africa”. With an area slightly more than one million km2, the country’s different physical conformations territories offer tourists a huge variety of exceptional landscapes, majestic mountains, towering peaks, deep gorges, wonderful volcanic lakes, impressive waterfalls, luxurious tropical regions extraordinary savannah and semi-desert areas.

Ethiopia’s history is ancient, rich and extremely interesting. It dates back to the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, and even before, when merchant ships sailed from Egypt crossed the Red Sea to trade gold, frankincense and myrrh for ivory and slaves. In the Afar region, located in the Rift Valley, which runs through the gaping hole and extends Ethiopia to Mozambique, were found the remains of Lucy, a creature that lived in this part of the world more than three million years ago, and whose name in the local language means “you are wonderful” (Denkenesh / Birkinesh). Lucy belonged to the family of Australopithecus afarensis, with smaller brains and somatic characteristics similar to monkeys, but was already bipedal. Her skeleton is almost complete and is preserved in the National Museum in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. Read more