Ethiopia is one of those countries where a short blog post absolutely cannot even scratch the surface. Ethiopia is incredibly culturally and geographically diverse. There’s a lot to cover.

Starting at the beginning, Ethiopia is one of the world’s oldest countries dating from 400 BC. Ethiopia’s inhabitants are far older though. Archaeologists recently discovered a 3.8-million-year-old skull named “Lucy” in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is one of only two African countries never to be colonised, even if Mussolini’s Italy interfered a little back in the 1930s. Ethiopia is sadly in the news right now with the recent outbreak of conflict in the Northern Tigray region.

Geographically Ethiopia has it all from deserts to tropical forests. That’s without mentioning, Addis Ababa is Africa’s highest capital city. Ethiopia is also the source of the Blue Nile.

These waters are actually proving quite controversial right now. Ethiopia is currently finishing up the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This mega project has been under construction since 2011 and will eventually power Africa’s largest hydroelectric power plant. 

What’s the catch then? You may remember from our visit last week that Egypt is completely and utterly dependent on the Nile for everything. Meanwhile, Ethiopia is keen to fill this dam as fast as possible. Understandably Egypt (and Sudan) are pretty concerned about receiving less water as this may lead to economic collapse for them. Sadly, talks between the three countries don’t seem to be particularly productive recently broke down in January.

If dams aren’t your thing, you may be more interested in the Ethiopian region of Dallol which holds the record of being the hottest inhabited place on earth. This record specifically goes to Dallol in Ethiopia is the hottest inhabited place on earth. Dallol is a cinder cone volcano 130 meters below sea level filled with geysers, salt planes and crazy looking rocks.

This isn’t Ethiopia’s only interesting volcano. Ethiopia’s Erta Ale volcano is the world’s longest existing lava lake. It’s been churning away since 1906 and is affectionally referred to as “the gateway to hell”.

Talking of gateways to hell - my coffee addiction apparently has its roots in Ethiopia as allegedly coffee was first discovered and consumed in Ethiopia. It also happens that Ethiopian beer is actually pretty good too.

If you’re now raring to book a trip to Ethiopia, you’ll be happy to know that Ethiopia is home to Africa’s largest airline, Ethiopian Airlines. Ethiopian Airlines is also the fourth largest in the world in terms of the number of countries served.

See you tomorrow as we reach Fiji and countries starting with the letter “F”.