Do you know where is the best coffee found? It is in Ethiopia. It is Africa’s oldest independent country and has the 2nd largest population in the continent. It is a place greatly enriched with culture and tradition, such as sharing a cup of coffee with friends. There is no shortage of things to do in this country, its extensive mountain scenery provides the chance to commune with nature and feel its natural beauty. From the medieval castles to the monasteries of Lake Tana, you could clearly see the diversity at its finest. There is no better place to experience the grandiosity and beautiful mixture of life, only in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia – IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING FACTS
- Addis Ababa is known as the capital of Africa due to it hosting the headquarters of the African Union. African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states except Morocco.
- Ethiopia’s 3rd largest city gives you access to Lake Tana which feeds the Nile where you can see some of the country’s oldest monasteries.
- Ethiopia is the only country that has an official location in Somaliland and the easiest way to access the self-proclaimed territory as well
- The Omo Valley is one of the only places in the world where you can still find indigenous people that haven’t been influenced by the outside world.
- There are as many as 84 languages spoken in Ethiopia. Although the official language is Amharic, many Ethiopians speak a local language and are instructed in English.
- Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. Keffa is still one of the strong coffee producing regions in Ethiopia.
- The Ethiopian calendar has a 13th month consisting of only five to six days.
- Ethiopia’s clock is 6 hours late. That time of the day that all other countries in Ethiopia’s time zone calls 12 a.m. is only 6 p.m. for Ethiopia. In the same way, their 12:00 a.m., that time when the date changes, falls not at midnight but at early morning, at that time that the rest of the world calls 6:00 a.m.
Ethiopia – COOL, FUNNY AND FUN FACTS
- One of the cheapest places to travel in Africa
- Feeding Hyenas in Harar – is also extremely interested being the 4th most holy city for Muslims; great museums, food, but not much nightlife.
- The Simien Mountains are often called God’s playground because of their unique formations. There are treks available into the national park where you can find a unique combination of animals and incredible landscapes.
- Ethiopia is Africa’s third largest coffee producer. There are about 700,000 coffee smallholders in Ethiopia, of which 54 percent are in semi forest areas
- This African country is also mentioned in the Koran, the Iliad, and the Odyssey.is one of the very few countries in the world that has never been occupied by foreign powers. Italy tried twice but was defeated by the Ethiopians.
- Ethiopia – This African country is also mentioned in the Koran, the Iliad, and the Odyssey.
- Ethiopians have made an impressive reputation in the Olympics after the success of native marathoners Abebe Bikila, who ran the race (and won!) barefoot in 1960, and Haile Gebrselassie, who holds the world marathon record at 2:03:59.
- The first female African flyer is Ethiopian Arsegedech Assefa. Also, the sole female jet fighter to succeed in aerial battle is Ethiopian Aster Tolossa.
- It is in Ethiopia that you find the tallest stale made out of a single stone.
- This was built 2,000 years ago and you can see many of them surviving millenniums and still standing in Aksum.
- The Ethiopian calendar is seven years behind the calendar we use here in the United States.
- Ethiopia is a country, 9 of its sites are listed in the world heritage sites by UNESCO that has stand it out of Africa’s 50+ nations.
Ethiopia – HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL FACTS
- The African Union was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa and launched on 9 July 2002 in South Africato replace the Organization of African Unity (OAU).
- Ethiopia’s national dish is called “wat.” Ethiopians prefer to eat this spicy stew with injera, a flat, spongy bread.
- During the 10th century, birth place of coffee is the region of Ethiopia known as “Keffa “, from where the name coffee is derived. Keffa is still one of the strong coffee producing regions in Ethiopia.
- In 1957, Ethiopian coffee certification began after the establishment of the National Coffee Board of Ethiopia (NCBE) aims was to control and coordinate producers, traders, and exporters interests and to improve the quality of Ethiopian coffee.
- The estate owner of Sangaste manor, the so called rye count Friedrich Georg Magnus von Berg (1845–1938) created the rye of Sangaste. This is the first-known rye breed in the world that is grown even today.
- In 1741, Tallinn – part of the world’s heritage of literature. The action of, chef-d’oeuvre of a Russian die-young writer Sergei Dovlatov, the novel The Compromise, takes place in Tallinn, the book covering his years spent here.
- In 1154, Tallinn was first put on the world map by an Arab geographer al-Idrisi. On his map Tallinn was called Kaleweny.
- Since 1973, the river Oma has proved a major attraction for white-water rafters. The season for rafting is between September and October, when the river is still high.
- The first daily newspaperwas published in Tallinn as early as in 1675
- There were many literate people in Estonia already in the 1850s – approximately 80% of the population. This figure exceeded almost all of the grand European civilised nations, the only equal ones being French and German.
