Discussion
Ask a question about 'Adi Tekelezan' Start a new discussion about 'Adi Tekelezan' Answer questions from other users |
Adi Tekelezan is a small town in the Anseba
region||At the time of Independence in 1993 Eritrea was arranged into ten provinces. These provinces were similar to the nine provinces operating during the colonial period. In 1996, these were consolidated into six regions...
of
EritreaEritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...
. It is located on the route between
AsmaraAsmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people...
and
KerenKeren is the second largest city in Eritrea. It is situated about 91 kilometers northwest of Asmara. The town serves as the capital of the Anseba region, and is home to the Bilen ethnic group.-History:...
. It is a thriving commercial center in Eritrea with a population estimated at 4,000.
History
The town was a stop on the ancient Christian
pilgrimageA pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
to holy sites. The area was first inhabatited by the
TigreThe Tigre are an ethnic group residing in Eritrea and Sudan. They are a nomadic and pastoralist people, related to the Tigray-Tigrinya people of Eritrea and Ethiopia and to the Beja people of Sudan.-History:...
but
TigrinyaTigray-Tigrinya are an ethnic group who live in the southern, central and northern parts of Eritrea and the northern highlands of Ethiopia's Tigray province. They also live in Ethiopia's former provinces of Begemder and Wollo, which are today mostly part of Amhara Region, though a few regions...
people immigrated to the region.
In the 1920s the Italians constructed the Asmara-Keren highway through the town of Adi Tekelezan. Because of this, it was also a very popular rest stop and a marketplace grew up in the town. The town was also the location of the Italian effort to defend Asmara against the oncoming British forces during World War II.
During the time of cooperation between the
Eritrean Liberation FrontThe Eritrean Liberation Front was the main independence movement in Eritrea which sought Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia during the 1960s and 1970s. In the very late 1950s unorganized political movement seeking independence was secretly active as small cells...
(ELF) and
Eritrean People's Liberation FrontThe Eritrean People's Liberation Front was an armed organization that fought for the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia. It emerged in 1970 as an intellectual left-wing group that split from the Eritrean Liberation Front .-Background:...
(EPLF) jointly garrisoned the town but were forced to withdraw after the Soviet Union began to assist Ethiopia's war effort.