This itinerary takes in the four sites on Ethiopia’s Historic Route (Bahir Dar, Gondar, Lalibela and Axum) the Blue Nile, the wildlife of the Simien Mountains and other places of interest.

Clients who arrive and depart on Ethiopian Airlines qualify for a substantial discount on the domestic flights.

Day 1:
On arrival in Addis Ababa you are met by your representative and transferred to your hotel. Relax until lunch time, which will be followed by a guided city tour. First drive north where the road climbs to Mount Entoto. In 1881 Emperor Menelik II made his permanent camp here, after he discovered the remains of what he believed to be the capital of the 16th century monarch Lebna Dengel. Menelik took this as a divine and auspicious sign.

At an altitude of up to 2500m., Addis Ababa is the third highest capital city in the world and Entoto is several hundred metres higher. As you drive up the hill there is an appreciable drop in temperature and the air is filled with the scent of the eucalyptus trees which line the road.

From the top, there is a panoramic view of the capital and surrounding countryside. Entoto is an important watershed; to the north, water flows to the Blue Nile and on to the Mediterranean; to the south, to the Awash River and east to Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.

Entoto was soon abandoned as a site for the capital - it was cold, difficult to provide for and there was a shortage of wood. Empress Taytu was said to have led the move down to the plain of Finfine and the hot springs at Filwuha in 1889, and to have named the new capital Addis Ababa, (or New Flower). However, two important structures remain within the old imperial compound on Entoto; the churches of Mariam and of the Archangel Raguel. It was in the church of Mariam that Menelik was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in 1889, and in the small museum in the compound there are various clothes, court and household implements and weapons dating from the period. The church of Raguel is unusual in that it is octagonal, rather than round. There is a first story balustrade around which Menelik liked to stroll.

Leaving the churches, you descend to Addis Ababa, stopping off at the National Archaeological Museum. Here visitors can see exhibits ranging from the Axumite and Gondarene periods through to the period of the monarchs Tewodros and Menelik II. Also exhibited, are the 3.5 million years old bones of "Lucy"

Return to your hotel for dinner and overnight.

Day 2:
Early transfer to the airport for the one hour flight (0710-0810) to Bahir Dar, an attractive town on Lake Tana, landscaped with tree-lined avenues and with the blue of the lake in the background.

Transfer on arrival to your hotel, situated on the shores of the lake which, at 68km wide and 73km long, is Ethiopia’s largest lake. It is famous for the monasteries and churches to be found on its many islands.

At leisure for a few hours, either in the hotel grounds or take a walk along the lake shore, before an early lunch in the hotel and then leave by boat for the Zeghie Peninsula, which is known for its 14th century, round, grass roofed churches and their magnificent wall murals. Visit two churches, Betra Mariam and Ura Kidane Mehret, walking through dense forest with lots of bird life, before returning by boat to the hotel.

Bahir Dar has several clubs and bars where visitors can see traditional and modern Ethiopian music and dancing.

Day 3:
Early morning excursion to the Blue Nile Falls, some 30 km from the town. A 20 minutes walk brings you to the Falls, which are at their most spectacular during and after the rainy season (from about June to January). Here the Blue Nile, which contributes 85% of the main Nile flow, starts its long journey to the Mediterranean.
Return to the hotel for lunch. In the afternoon there is a guided tour of Bahir Dar, including the markets, the place where the Blue Nile exits the Lake, and the former palace of Emperor Haile Selassie at Bizeit. Dinner and overnight at the hotel

Day 4:
Early transfer to the airport for the 20 minutes flight to Gondar (0830-0850). On arrival leave straight away for the Simien Mountains National Park, a drive of approximately 100km (5-6 hours, on rough gravel roads).

A UNESCO World Heritage Site since the late 1960s, the Simien Mountains National Park presents perhaps the most dramatic scenery in Africa – great volcanic plugs, formed some 40 million years ago and eroded over the aeons into fantastic crags, pinnacles and flat topped mountains, “The chess pieces of the Gods”, as one writer described them, tower over precipitous gorges, river valleys and plains stretching all the way to Eritrea. There are many peaks over 4,000m, and Ras Dashen at 4,620m is the highest in the country and the fourth highest in Africa.

In the Simiens, visitors can see the endemic Gelada or bleeding heart baboon, the Walia Ibex, the Ethiopian Wolf (the rarest canid in the world) and rock hyrax, and endemic birds, such as the Thick-billed Raven, Black-headed Siskin, White-collared Pigeon, Wattled Ibis, White-billed Starling, Spot-breasted Plover and White-backed Black Tit. Cruising Lammergeyers are often seen.

The park is also famous for its Afro-Alpine flora, meadows and grasslands punctuated by Giant Lobelia and flowering Red Hot Pokers.

Meals and accommodation is provided in a mobile tented camp, fully equipped for your stay. At 3,600m, it is the highest camp site in Africa!

This afternoon head a little deeper into the park, up to and a little past Sankaber, for marvelous views and plenty of Gelada baboons, and the opportunity for a short walking safari

Day 5:
Set off after breakfast on the return trip to Gondar and check into your hotel, which is situated on a hill with panoramic views of the town and its monuments. There are splendid sunsets from the terrace. Occasionally, guests will see the giant Lammergeyer, with its 3m wing span, soaring on the thermal air currents by the hotel.

Gondar was the imperial capital from the 17th to mid 19th centuries, and the Royal Enclosure or Fasil Gibbi, provides visitors with a idea of what it must have been like in its hey day. Within the compound are the castles of various Gondarene emperors – extensive renovation has been and is still being carried out – along with a banqueting hall, stables and churches. About 2km from the town centre is the bath of King Fasilides, where at Timkat (Ethiopian Epiphany) a nearby river is diverted to fill an area the size of a small swimming pool. Worshippers plunge into the cold water in a re-enactment of the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan.

Although most of Gondar’s churches were destroyed during the Mahdi invasion from Sudan in the 1880s, one very fine example, Debre Berhan Selassie, was saved, according to the legend, by a swarm of bees which routed the invaders. The walls and ceiling are completely covered with murals - the angels’ faces on the ceiling have become a common motif in Ethiopian design.

Finally visit the ruined palace of Queen Mentowab, and the church of Qusquam Mariam, situated on a hill just outside town.

Gondar offers good opportunities for experiencing the Ethiopian tradition of azmari music, where a couple of wandering minstrels, a girl with a strident voice clapping in time to the music accompanied by a man playing a single stringed violin or masinqo, entertain their listeners with songs about life, the world and their audience.

Day 6:
Transfer to the airport for the flight to Lalibela (0910-0940). At the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries King Lalibela of the Zaghwe dynasty built a series of rock hewn churches – the New Jerusalem as he called it – now rightly acknowledged to be one of the wonders of the world. There are 11 churches in the town named after him, with others in the surrounding countryside. All are still in use today. (The churches are divided into two groups, the division being the River Yordanos or River Jordan.)

It is estimated that the churches took 25 years to construct – for the Kingdom based on Roha (later renamed Lalibela) to have kept a large work force engaged in economically unproductive labour for such a long period means that it disposed of a large economic surplus and was very wealthy. The area was clearly fertile then and agriculturally productive, whereas now deforestation and population pressures on the land have sadly reduced its productivity.

After checking into your hotel, there will be a tour of the first group of churches, returning to the hotel for lunch, and continuing the tour in the afternoon.

Day 7:
After breakfast set off on mule, or on foot, to the church of Ashetun Mariam, about 4 hours’ round trip. Pass small villages on the ascent and enjoy wonderful views of the surrounding countryside from the top of the mountain where the church is located. Alternatively, those who do not feel up to a hike or mule ride can go a shorter distance by car to the cave church of
Neakuto Leab.

After lunch, set off by car to the cave church of Yemrehane Christos, built by the king of the same name before the reign of King Lalibela. The church is constructed in Axumite-style inside a cave, and is similar to the 7th century monastery at Debre Damo in Tigray, with alternating levels of wood and stone. A 40km trip from Lalibela followed by a 10 minutes hike brings you to this beautiful church, the finest example of its kind in Ethiopia.

Day 8:
Transfer to the airport for the flight to Axum (1000-1040). From around 200 BC to 700 AD, Axum was the seat of an Empire which extended across the Red Sea to Arabia, traded with India and China, minted its own coinage, had its own alphabet and notational system, constructed great engineering works and dams and which was reckoned by the 4th century Persian historian Mani to be one of the four great powers of the ancient world, alongside Persia, China and Rome. Today the visitor can see stelae/obelisks (the largest single pieces of stone erected anywhere on the world and no one can understand how they were transported and then erected from the quarry 4km away). Visits are made also to the tombs and castles of kings, Axum Museum and Mariamtsion Church, built on the site of Ethiopia’s first church. A chapel within the church compound is believed by Ethiopian Orthodox Christians to house the Ark of the Covenant, or the original tablets of Moses on which are inscribed the 10 Commandments (see Graham Hancock’s The Sign and the Seal).

On arrival, transfer to your hotel. After an early lunch, the guided tour includes a visit to the newly constructed museum, immediately behind the obelisks, followed by an ascent of the hill to the east to see the castle and tomb of King Kalab. En route you pass Mai Shum (or the bath of the Queen of Sheba), and also the stone on which exploits of the Axumite kings are carved in three languages, Ge'ez, Himyar (from Yemen) and Greek.

Coming back into town you visit the tomb of King Basen, whom Orthodox Ethiopians believe was one of the three Wise Men who brought presents to the infant Jesus.

Continuing the guided tour, visit the grounds of Mariamtsion Church, containing the ruins of the old church, and the stone seats of judges.

Inside the grounds visit the small museum (women are not allowed inside, nor into the 17th century church built by Emperor Fasilides, but the priests usually bring out some crowns of kings for women visitors to see), and end the day with a visit to the site known locally as Queen of Sheba’s Palace, although it is of a later date and is the villa of an Axumite notable from around the 1st century AD. Dinner and overnight is in the hotel

Day 9:
Set off on the 55km trip to Yeha, Ethiopia’s first city – settlement in the area which dates back more than 2,800 years. There are the remains of a temple dedicated to Ilmuqeh, the moon god, and next to the temple is the church of Abune Aftse, one of the “9 Saints” who did much to spread Christianity in Ethiopia. The temple at Yeha is the oldest building in sub Saharan Africa.

About 5km out of Axum on the road east, at the top of a hill, you are confronted with the dramatic mountain backdrop of the “teeth of Adua” – the striking scenery around the area where in 1896 King Menelik II defeated the invading Italian forces.

Picnic lunch in Yeha and return to Axum late afternoon. Dinner and overnight in your hotel

Day 10:
Transfer to the airport for the return flight to Addis Ababa (0900-1000).Day at leisure for souvenir shopping, visiting the Mercato, Africa’s biggest market, where you can buy everything from livestock to computers, and you could also visit the Ethiopian Ethnographic Museum, housed in the former Genete Palace of Emperor Haile Selassie. Farewell dinner at the Yod Abyssinia, and see dancing from Ethiopia’s different regions. Overnight at a selected hotel.

Day 11:
Transfer to the airport for your onward flight or extend your stay in Ethiopia.

The tour can be reduced from 10 to 7 nights by omitting the wildlife experience of the Simien Mountains and staying one night only at Axum, Gondar and Bahir Dar.

On the other hand, for those seeking a more extensive wildlife experience, it can be amended to include more days in the Simien Mountains.

Some journeys can be by road instead of by air; for example, from Bahir Dar to Gondar which could then include a visit to the Awramba community; or the scenic drive between Gondar and Axum. From Axum, it is possible to proceed to Hauzien to explore some of Tigray’s rock hewn churches, flying back to Addis Ababa from Mekele.

We shall always give you an individual quotation, but as a guide, the above touring and accommodation arrangements cost approximately €230 (US$290) per person per day including domestic flights





Contact dmAFRICA for rates applicable