Lalibela: The Rock-Hewn Churches and How to Visit
A guide to Lalibela: the eleven rock-hewn churches, what to see in each group, how to get there, when to go, Genna at Christmas…
Read guide
Read, plan, explore
All Ethiopia Travel Guides
Practical guides to Ethiopia, with cultural context and details for planning your trip.
Inside an Ethiopian Orthodox Church: Tabot, Customs and Worship
Early on Sunday mornings, people dressed in white walk towards churches across Ethiopia. Many remain outside. They stand in the churchyard, lean against the…
Read guide
Ethiopian Music and Dance: Eskista, Krar and the Four Qenet
Ethiopian melodies often use five-note scales with distinctive intervals. Singers ornament long notes with a quick tremble, while dances may be led by rapid…
Read guide
Ethiopia’s Endemic Animals: Wildlife Found Nowhere Else
Many of Ethiopia’s best-known wild animals live nowhere else. They include a red wolf that hunts rodents on plateaus at 4,000 metres, a grass-eating…
Read guide
Lucy and Ethiopia’s Human Fossils: Ardi, Selam and Omo
On 24 November 1974, in the dry gullies of Hadar in Ethiopia’s Afar region, the American palaeoanthropologist Donald Johanson and his student Tom Gray…
Read guide
The Ethiopian Alphabet: How the Ge’ez Script (Fidel) Works
Shop signs, bus fronts and newspaper headlines in Addis Ababa use a script otherwise seen mainly in Eritrea. Ethiopians call it fidel (ፊደል), meaning…
Read guide
Ethiopian Names: How They Work and What They Mean
Updated October 2026. Ethiopian names work differently from names in most of the world, and knowing how can save you a lot of confusion,…
Read guide
Tej and Tella: Ethiopian Honey Wine and Home-Brewed Beer
Updated October 2026. Ethiopia’s traditional drinks are as distinctive as its food. Tej is a golden honey wine served in a round glass flask,…
Read guide
Doro Wat: How to Make Ethiopian Chicken Stew
Updated October 2026. Doro wat is the dish Ethiopians cook for the most important days of the year. At Genna, Fasika and other holidays,…
Read guide
The Battle of Adwa and Adwa Victory Day
Updated October 2026. On 1 March 1896, in the mountains around the small northern town of Adwa, the army of Emperor Menelik II defeated…
Read guide