May 8, 2005
Mount Ziqualla
Gregor writes about Debra Damo, a spectacular monastery in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia has many amazing sights. I was fortunate enough to see a few of them when I was there in 1999. One of the most memorable was Mount Ziqualla.
Most of the area around the nation's capital of Addis Ababa is a plateau, and to reach Mount Ziqualla you have to travel for a long time along dusty roads. Dotted around the landscape are occasional mountains, rising up from the arid farmland. As you travel you pass small villages and the occasional farmstead, with villagers threshing corn with their cattle. Before long you are completely covered in dust from the road.
As you drive closer to the mount, it begins to dominate the skyline. The outer slopes of the mount are all steep and dissected by steep gullies. There is only one road to the top of the mount, and you need a good 4-wheel drive jeep to make it up the road. Each year in the rainy season the road is almost completely washed away; each year the monks at the monastery at the top repair the road, since it brings valuable tourists.
Unfortunately when I visited they had not yet repaired the road, which made the trip to the top interesting to say the least. Ever wondered what the tipping point of a 4-wheel drive is? They can go a lot closer to vertical than you'd think is possible. Our driver was exceptional, and even when the rest of us were hanging on for dear life he remained cool and calm, and didn't even break into a sweat.
When you reach the top of the mount (which is an inactive volcano), you are rewarded with a breathtaking view. The entire plateau stretches out beneath you, and as you look out you notice you're almost level with the clouds. The mount is approximately 1000m above the surrounding plain. It's notable that the vegetation on the edges of the mount is greener than on the plateau, and there's even several farm gardens.
On the northern rim of the volcano is an Orthodox monastery, guarded by monks with rifles. When we arrived they didn't seem to happy to see us, and for the first time since our steep ascent began our driver broke into a sweat. We stood back quietly (and not a little fearfully) whilst he negotiated with a monk, and after some notes changed hands we were eventually allowed to walk around, and were even given a tour. Or maybe it was an armed guard, I was never too sure.
Walking up the steps you arrive in a walled garden, with a church in the middle. The church was small, but incredibly clean and well-maintained. The most surprising aspect was how bright the paints on the walls were, despite the harsh glare of the sun. Unfortunately we were not able to see inside.
The volcano's crater harbours a lake about 100m below the crater rim. After the dry and barren plateau, seeing a lake surrounded by grassland is surprising to say the least. It's no wonder that the monks considered the lake to be holy. You reach the lake by walking down a steep path on the inside of the crater.
It's only when you're at the bottom of the crater that you can really appreciate that this was once a volcano, as you can look up at the crater rim on all sides without being obscured by trees. Near the forrest edge on the south side of the lake there's a traditional Oromo sacred site.