Gondar, Amhara, EthiopiaToday is Good Friday here, we have 2
Easters this year as it has to do with the calendar they use which is
constantly 7 years behind.
We drive 3 hours to Gondar. On the way to
Gondar we see varying types of villages which differ in the way that some only
have small tin sheds and shacks as well as ones with small high rise buildings
consisting of 3-4 floors. These are
mostly commercial banking buildings. There are fields for rice planting when
the season is wet which will be July to August but they are dry at the
moment. The fields are reasonably green
and there is a large amount of livestock grazing in them. They have lot of little blue tuk tuks, the
nickname for these is the “blue mosquito”.
The cost of petrol here is 87cents per litre.
In Gondar visit the Royal Enclosure that is
surrounded by high stone walls containing the ruins of 17th century palaces of
King Fasiladas, King Lyasu and Queen Mentewab and many other different
buildings. They even had a lion cage for their tame lions to show that they had
power. These castles were added to as
each of the Kings died. There was
firstly one castle and surrounding buildings and then when King Fasiladas died
his son built another castle to live in and so on.
They used the previous castles when needed
for entertaining dignitaries, priests and other royalty. The castles are a mixture of Ethiopian,
European and probably also Indian styles. According to descriptions of 17th
century travellers, the interior of the castle of King Fasiladas was extremely
luxurious, decorated with gold, ivory and precious stones. I have heard it called Africa’s Camelot.
We also see the King’s swimming pool which
is a short drive from the castle. This
site is used each January 18th & 19th for Epiphany (a
religious ceremony) where they fill it and decorate it with flags. The priests and bishops come to bless the water.
We have an early finish today at 3.30pm as
being Good Friday the church we were to attend has mass so we are relaxing by
the pool area in the warm sun and watching the sun set. We will do the church in tomorrow’s program.
2025-05-22