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The graceful city of Gondar, embraced with incredibility, was founded by Emperor Fasilidas around 1635. It is famous for its many medieval castles, (constructed in the European middle age architectural style), and the design and decoration of its churches. An extensive compound, near Gondar's center contains the massive ruins of a group of imposing castles like some African Camelot. The battlements and towers evoke images of gracious knights on horseback and of ceremonies laden with spectacle and honor. The oldest and most impressive of Gondar's many imperial structures is the palace of Emperor Fasilidas, said to have been built by an Indian architect. There are also numerous other fascinating historical buildings and relics to be seen in the area. DebreBerhan Selassie, in particular, represents a masterpiece of the Gondarene School of art. This finest Gondariane church was built during the reign of Emperor Iyasu( 1682-1706), and was never destroyed. It is said that when the Dervishes tried to burn it in 1881, they were attacked and dispersed by bees. The church is rectangular, similar to those of ancient Axumite architecture. The inside walls of the front room are covered with paintings on cloth, glued to the surface. The ceiling is built with thick beams and it decorated with winged angel heads looking down. The wall paintings depict scenes from the life of Christ, Mary, the Saints, the Trinity, and others. The unique murals are awesome and have stood the test of time for centuries. Flanked by twin mountain streams at an altitude of more than 2,300 meters, Gondar commands spectacular views over farmlands to the gleaming waters of Lake Tana. The city retains an atmosphere of antique charm mingled with an impression of mystery and violence. Gondar was once a vigorous and vital center of religious learning and art. For

The eastern part of Ethiopia, close to Djibouti and Somalia, is a region inhabited mainly by Muslims. The ancient walled city of Harar has more than 90 mosques and shrines mixed in with households behind its sixteenth century walls. This city was founded over 1000 years ago, and is considered to be one of the holiest centers of Muslim learning in the Islamic world. Harar, which is not too large to be visited on foot, is a place of unique and unforgettable charm and has much to offer to the discerning tourist. Walking down its narrow, cobble stoned and twisting lanes, one can easily feel transported back in time to the days of Richard Burton - or even earlier when Amir Nur constructed the city's stout old walls. Background History: From the base of Harar city, the strong Emir of Harar in the 1500s, Ahmed Gragn, rebelled against the domination of the highland Christian empire of Ethiopia to the west. Ahmed Gragn was defeated by the Christian ruler of the day, Emperor Gelawdeos, with the help of the Portuguese. In the vacuum left by the devastating battle between Harar and Christian Ethiopia, the fierce Oromo warriors advanced from the south, occupying much of central and northern Ethiopia, and up to the gates of Harar. Although the city withstood the assaults because of its reinforced walls, this independent trading city of Harar was left surrounded by an Oromo countryside. In the late nineteenth century, after a 10 year spell of Egyptian rule, the city state was conquered by the return of the Christian Empire of the highlands under the Emperor Menelik. The forces of Menelik were led by his cousin RasMekonen, the father of the late Emperor Haile Selassie. Haile Selassie was therefore born and raised in the Harar vicinity, and always

The ancient Ethiopian empire in the north, came to an abrupt end, when a ferocious woman warrior named Queen Judith, led her tribes up from the Semienmountains and destroyed Axum, the capital. After a power vacuum of nearly a century, the Zagwe dynasty came to power in the eleventh century. These dedicated Christian kings took it upon themselves to revive and restore the various churches destroyed by Judith. There are no less than 1000 churches in the Lasta Region of Lalibela alone. Some are hidden in enormous caves, while eleven of this master craftsmanship is found in one locale, Lalibela, previously known as Roha. These eleven churches are brilliant feats of engineering and architecture and are often referred to as the "Eighth wonder of the world". The Lalibela churches are truly amazing because of two major features. The first one is the fact that these towering edifices were hewn out of the solid, red volcanic tuff on which they stand. In consequence, they seem to be of superhuman creation - in scale, in workmanship and in architectural concept. The second amazing feature is the location where they are built. The destruction of the churches by Queen Judith may have warned the builders to hide these churches from future prying eyes and plundering hands of hostile interlopers. Thus, when one approaches these churches from the road below, they remain little more than invisible against a horizon dominated by the 4,200-metre peak of Mount Abuna Yosef. Even close-up, they seem wholly unremarkable, and it is this camouflaged, chameleon quality that may have kept them safe to this day. 'Lalibela churches, silence the most cynical pedants. Close examination is required to appreciate the full extent of the achievement because, like medieval mysteries, much effort has been made to cloak their nature.' When an

The tantalizing and towering ruins of Yeha's Temple of the Moon - built more than 2,500 years ago, in Sabaean times, is considered to be Ethiopia's earliest high civilization. Whether this was a lone shrine of a temple , or part of a city with other similar edifices is not yet ascertained. Nevertheless, the fact that the wall is built with precise-fitting blocks of smoothly polished yellow limestone carefully placed without the use of mortar, leaves no doubt of the superb quality and craftsmanship involved. Apart from the temple, however - which speaks eloquently of the works of a high civilization - little or nothing is known about the people who built this great edifice. This mystery also raises another mystery: how far back does Ethiopian civilization really go? Although inscriptions and fine objects of bronze and other artifacts have been excavated from Yeha since 1909, nothing is uncovered to shade light on the above mysteries.