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 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 this historical mountain's high table. Furthermore, the historical site of Entoto Maryam (43), with its museum and Palace, rises just above Entoto Park [Z] and 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 surprisingly gentle terrain.

 

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 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 just above Entoto Park (Z), alluring by its high altitude to explore this vast high plateau.

A Lovely Landscape for the Family

Except for the historic and quaint mountain town of Entoto Maryam (43), with restaurants, a museum, and a Palace, this highland location offers a peaceful undulated landscape with well-accessible trails. Except for this site's gentle and graceful promenade landscape, a terrain vehicle can reasonably come in close contact with most sights and activities. 

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 surprisingly gentle terrain with great opportunities for family excursions. At Entoto Maryam (43), a high plateau of the gentle landscape is evident and presents 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 Natur's mystique on this vast high plateau. Thus, Entoto Maryam (43), the old Capital's central area, is located on this historical mountain's high table where a longer excursion is also offered towards 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 the curious result that two raindrops that simultaneously moist 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 never reaches 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 Highland to the Nile is enriched by further waterways than only the water from the Blue Nile: this main 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 this is so close to human health and well-being. However, the insidious hierarchical governing terror of the past caused severe scares among many nations, inflicting humiliation in severe starvation and fearful aversions, thus damaging the population's most critical needs for safe stimulus in daily life and duties.

The Environment and the Loss of Civilizations

Destructive heritage within many of today's clans of

autocrats give the culture a treacherous shift with

a legacy of an obscure genetic inflow.

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 despair for their families, very few dared, and few survived in their attempt to undertake any necessary technology or work to promote these water masses to benefit the population during heat and drought. 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 within these rich cultures of the past, ultimately causing irreversible destruction and erosion of land, often in prolonged and extreme poverty.

Ethiopia's Devoted Work for Nature Restoration

Benefits from 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 genuine cradle by restoring a landscape of 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 Nautre 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
 Nature's water-bearing body, where the water
 is harboured in the totality of this image. 
Study of the water's complexity

Ethiopia's Natural Water Production

The history of Ethiopia's natural forest and natural prehistoric ecological and geological heritage obtains background by studying the natural and critical processes of the original soils. This creation of the ground for the trees derives its importance from the endemic decomposing leaves and twigs. This genetically optimized process of the indigenous trees' ground composting leaves and twigs of the Ethiopian forest was vital to hinder the erosive torrents' initiation. It gave the trees their ground, thus giving the soil's structure the required time to absorb deluges in this mountainous highland landscape.

The Natural Water Bodies of the Highland

The historical ignorance of the endemic Nature severely weakened many cultures' original soil systems in its essential function of leading and assisting rainwater to the natural underground aquifers. Hence, the severe reduction of the remaining soil's ability to receive moisture severely reduced the delivered water fed into the natural aquifers and, of course, reduced future chances for the citizens to obtain clean household water. Of course, this phenomenon also raises hindrances to reintroducing indigenous species.

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, scarce at Entoto, are struggling to survive in the toxic environment created by the eucalyptus. The eroded lands, from 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 pre-historical quality of tremendous strength, delivered from the past aeons' evolution. This urgent situation calls for restoration and further scientific examination.

Secrets From a Time Lost in Shadows and Turmoils

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 Humainity Subconsciously Behind Bars

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

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 in the seasons, with months of heavy downpours over the country's characteristic rugged landscape topography followed by months of blistering sunshine, difficulties naturally arise for the survival of planted saplings. The long prehistoric Nature's evolutionary optimized stability 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 the essential protection and soil stability have regrettably perished.

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The Childhood Cradle of Entoto's Slopes

Sir Wilfred Thesiger

Sir Wilfred Thesiger received the wilderness from his childhood cradle at Entoto and lived with nature's closeness even more intensively during the following years of dangerous missions. The author's writings now directly contact these remarkable events.

These compelling stories from an almost forgotten Abyssinia appear with intricate ardour while they appear with humble sincerity but irresistible low-key beauty. In the initial contact with the literature of this authoring and remarkable legend, a warm, friendly narrator clearly appears. The book one reads is thus captivating enough to thereby become part of the reader's own emotional experience.