The Flip Side of the Coin

We left Zanzibar two weeks ago. Since that time we’ve been touring the Ethiopian highlands, and have even managed to climb 4,430 meters above sea level to Ethiopia’s second-highest mountain (of which more later). What follows are some of the highlights from our adventures in the highlands.

Monk-tipping

No, this is not an obscure American prank, but the duty of every tourist visiting one of Lake Tana’s many island monasteries. Despite our previous experience of renting a rickety motorboat in Zanzibar (where we were almost shipwrecked after our outboard motor broke down), we paid another African fisherman a fistful of dollars to take us to some of the lake’s most famous temples.

Early in the morning we sat off in our little boat. Of the four or five monasteries we visited, the procedure for each was as follows.

1. Arrive on tiny island in middle of beautiful sky-blue lake
2. Alight on jetty to be promptly mobbed by touts flogging tourist trinkets
3. Ascend small hill to monastery
4. Exchange polite ‘Salaams’ with aged monk
5. Enter and gaze in awe at the 900-year old murals that fill every inch of church wall… Watch familiar biblical stories brought back to life in full Technicolor comic-book style!
6. Photograph the many crosses, manuscripts, crowns and other dusty reliquaries brought out by obliging monk
7. Express silent concern over the way in which such priceless antiquities are stored – heaped up in dilapidated cupboards, crowns rusting quickly away, manuscripts dissolving before our eyes…
8. Respectfully deposit small tip in priest’s Tip Box
9. Rerun gamut of touts and cast off for next island

Castles in Africa

Yes, really… In a town called ‘Gondar’, of all places. (Not the Gondor of Tolkien’s Middle Earth of course, although interestingly there is another Ethiopian town called ‘Shire’ a few miles to the north.)

Ethiopia has an incredible history, and thankfully there are many monuments from much of this history still standing. One such era was the Gondarian Empire of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Inspired by Portuguese forts and Indian palaces, the emperors of Gondar built huge castles to proclaim their wealth. Thanks to UNESCO, some of the most magnificent remain in good condition and are open to the public. Wondering amongst the turrets and crenellations of “Africa’s Camelot” offers an unforgettable glimpse into Ethiopia’s mysterious and fascinating past.

Obelisks and tombs

After Gondar, Axum: a town, and an empire, even more full of monuments and history. Dozens of tombs, deep underground, exhibit the extaordinary stonemasonry skill of their creators. One thousand years after their creation, huge granite obelisks (some up to thirty metres in height) still soar high above the town.

Mussolini even had the temerity to ship one of the largest back to Rome – thankfully it was returned in 2005 and now stands precisely where it once did.

It’s incredible to think that only 5% of the tombs in Axum have been excavated – the rest lie untouched, still waiting for an archaeologist’s tools to reveal their secrets…

Begging Belief

Having lived in Uganda for a year, we’re all too familiar with the sight of extreme poverty. However, in Uganda blatent begging from mzungu (foreigners) is rare, and typically confined to the larger cities. In Ethiopia, however, all faranji (mzungu) are seen as appropriate targets for persistent begging. In some of the major tourists towns in particular, the following form of begging is annoyingly common. Operating like a form of face-to-face Internet phishing scam, someone will approach you and ask for your personal details – your name, nationality, length of stay in Ethiopia, etc. Pleasentries thus dispensed with, the business end of the interaction will become apparent. One of the following questions will be asked:

“You need a guide?”
“You need car hire?”
“You need hotel?”

(Translation: “Can I outrageously overcharge you for something?”)

Or sometimes a more direct request is made:

“Give me pen!”
“Give me money!”

Begging is especially common outside churches. Time and again as we’ve headed for the monastery door a legion of often grotesquely deformed unfortunates have shuffled silently towards us – like a scene in a zombie movie.

The above is made all the more frustrating as it is replayed time and again whenever a faranji attempts to walk anywhere in public.

Churches in Rock

Lalibela – the undisputed highlight of any trip to Ethiopia. Not a single church as many think but eleven different ones, each is a minor miracle of human invention. The result is incomparably spectacular (although if pushed the Angkor temple complex in Cambodia would be the closest comparison I can offer).

Michelangelo said that every slab of marble has a masterpiece inside it – all an artist has to do is free it from the surrounding rock. I’m sure the Axumite kings who built such incredible monuments would agree.

While most civilizations start from the ground and build UP, the Axumites started from the ground and built DOWN – straight into the solid rock below. And, connecting each temple, a maze of mysterious underground tunnels, slicing effortlessly through the granite. Wondering around the temple complex is a dizzying experience – frequently losing the way, getting lost in pitch-black tunnels, bumping into monks, stumbling across hidden ledges, rooms and alcoves, all like a particularly atmospheric level of (the video game) Tomb Raider.

All in all a fantastic experience. We’re currently enjoying a lazy day in Addis Ababa before we fly out to the ancient city-state of Harar in the far east of Ethiopia, concerningly close to the Somalian border. We’ll keep you posted wehen we return next week!

Now it’s over to Grania for an account of our four-day trek up to the heights of the Simian Highlands…