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This is one of the prominent tourist areas of the country. Nowhere else in the world can you find a collection of Tourist attractions in one area that could date back to a time of ancient man civilization.

The well-trodden path through Ethiopia’s famous and fascinating historic sites takes you through a scenic, magnificent world of fairy-tale names such as Axum, Gondar, Bahar Dar, Lalibela and Harar.

Traveling the route by plane, car or both will offer you a glimpse into a truly remarkable past. As well as many priceless historical relics, you will also see the castles at Gondar, the churches of Lalibela- hewn out of living Rock, the Mysterious giant stelae at Axum, the ruins of the Queen of Sheba’s palace, and the monastery at Debre Damo, whose access is limited to men and then only by way of a rope lowered by friendly monks above.

Much more is known about the historic highland city of Axum, once a great commercial center, trading via the Red sea port of Adulis and founded perhaps 500 years after the decline of Yeha. Axum stands in the highlands of north western Tigray, commanding spectacular views over the nearby Adwa hills. This ancient settlement is frequently referred to as “the sacred city of the Ethiopians” a description that adequately culture as a centre of Orthodox Christianity. Many remarkable monuments here attest to the great antiquity of religious expression in this country, and as a former capital that has never lost its special appeal to the hearts and minds of all Ethiopians.

Axum is renowned for its Cathedral of st. Mary of Zion, where legend has it; the original Ark of the Covenant is housed. Axum is also famous for its seven mysterious monolithic stelae, hewn from single pieces of solid granite. The most notable are carved to resemble multi-storey houses; several weigh more than 500 tones and stand twenty meters high. They seem less like prayers of stone and more like lightning –rods of heaven.

Axum’s greatest significance, however, is as the epic centre of the Queen of Sheba’s dynasty, up on which rests the notion for the sacred kinship of the Semitic peoples of Ethiopia- a notion that links the recent past to ancient times. The former Emperor Haile Selassie claimed to be the 225 th monarch of the Solomonic line. His death in 1975 marked the end of an era and the beginning of an entire way of life.

The 1868 English expedition against Emperor Tewodros and to take Meqdels, the biggest such campaign of the British Empire, was shown as “astonishing church carved in to a rocky out crop”. For a while this was assumed by the outside world to be the only one of its kind in Tigray.

As recently as 1963, when supposedly a full list of Ethiopia’s rock-hewn churches was published ,only nine churches were recorded for Tigray.since then, no less than 123 have been discovered , three-quarters of which are apparently still in use as normal parish churches of monastic communities. Most of these are found a long the Adigrat Mekele road or else they can be reached from it. At least a week is required to visit the most interesting of them.

Bahar Dar located on the southern shores of lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile , with its ancient island monasteries and both the Blue and the white Niles most spectacular feature, the Tiss Issat water falls (smoking water)( Blue Nile falls).

On the island of Dega Estefanos, you will find the church of saint stefanos which has a priceless collection of icons and manuscripts and houses the mummified remains of a number of Ethiopian Emperors.

For the modern traveler, the starting point of any visit to the Blue Nile falls, or to the islands of Lake Tana, is the bustling market town of Bahar Dar on the lake’s south –eastern shore. The colorful markets and a variety of handicraft and Weaving centers also make it a comfortable base for excursion by land or water.

Bahar Dar port provides access by boat to a number of historic lake-side churches and monasteries near and far. Most date from the seventeenth century and have beautifully painted walls. Many such places of worship now have fascinating museums, at which the visitor can see priceless illustrated manuscripts, historic crowns and fine royal and ecclesiastical robes. Some monastic islands are forbidden to women, but others can be visited by both sexes.

Visitors to Bahar Dar can also see Tankwas, locally made canoes, made out of the papyrus reeds growing by the lake shore, as well as an historic old building erected, in st. Georges church compound, by the 17 th century Spanish Jesuit, Pero Paes.

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