How pretty is this? (via Wikipedia)
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ll be heading to Ethiopia in October! So what did I know about Ethiopia prior to last week? Not a whole lot. So today I bring you some fun facts about it.
- Oldest site of human existence
- Source of the Blue Nile (with White Nile makes up Nile river… also this is the river considered to be flowing out of the biblical Garden of Eden).
- One of the first areas of the world to officially adopt Christianity
- Only one of two African countries that has always remained independent
- The Amharic kingdom is mentioned in the Illiad and was the largest kingdown in between Greece and Persia
- Birthplace of coffee (!!)
- They do have rhinoceros, ibex, elephants, lions, giraffes and cheetahs
- The capital of Addis Ababa is a city state of over 3.3 million people
- Official language is Amharic, with 17.5 million native speakers it falls in the same range as Dutch, Nepali, Romanian, Greek, Catalan, etc
- Addis Ababa and is at an elevation of 7,874 ft! (For comparison, Denver is at 5,130–5,680 ft)
- Climate type is tropical monsoon… but there are mountains, desert and grassland. Addis Ababa has a yearly average temperature between 45-75 degrees Fahrenheit.
- I hear it’s GREAT for running.
Oh, and it’s located in eastern Africa.
via World Atlas
