Agula is a town located in northern Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. Located in the Debubawi (Southern) Zone

Debubawi Zone

Debubawi is one of five Zones in the Ethiopian Region of Tigray. Debubawi is bordered on the south and west by the Amhara Region, on the northwest by Mehakelegnaw , the north by Misraqawi and on the east by the Afar Region...

 of the Tigray Region

Tigray Region

Tigray Region is the northernmost of the nine ethnic regions of Ethiopia containing the homeland of the Tigray people. It was formerly known as Region 1...

, it lies about 32 km northeast of Mek'ele

Mek'ele

Mek'ele , also transliterated as Makale, is a city in northern Ethiopia and the capital of the Tigray Region. It is located some 650 kilometers north of the capital, Addis Ababa, at latitude and longitude with an elevation of 2084 meters above sea level...

, just east of the Mek'ele - Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...

 highway, and 25 km north of Qwiha

Qwiha

Qwiha is a town located in northern Ethiopia. The name comes from the local word for willows, which are abundant in the area. Located in the Debubawi Zone of the Tigray Region, it lies 9 kilometers east of Mek'ele straddling the highway that leads to Addis Ababa...

. It has a latitude and longitude of 13°41′30"N 39°35′30"E with an elevation of 1930 metres above sea level. Nearby is a stream and a pass (elevation 2030 metres) which share the same name.

Agula was an important station on the salt caravan route from Dallol

Dallol, Ethiopia

Dallol was a settlement in northern Ethiopia. Located in Administrative Zone 2 of the Afar Region in the Afar Depression, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of about 130 meters below sea level...

 west to Atsbi

Atsbi

Atsbi is a town in northern Ethiopia. Located in the Misraqawi Zone of the Tigray Region, about 50 kilometers northeast of Qwiha, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 2630 meters above sea level...

.

History

Agula was visited by the Portuguese priest Francisco Álvares

Francisco Álvares

Francisco Álvares was a Portuguese missionary and explorer. In 1515 he traveled to Ethiopia as part of the Portuguese embassy to emperor Lebna Dengel accompanied by returning Ethiopian ambassador Matheus. The embassy arrived only in 1520 to Ethiopia where he joined long sought Portuguese envoy...

 on 13 August 1520, who called it Anguguim. He mentions in the town "a well-built church -- upon very thick stone supports; very well hewn" which was dedicated to Saint Chirqos. The town is mentioned again in an inquiry conducted by Emperor Iyasu I

Iyasu I of Ethiopia

Iyasu I , also known as Iyasu the Great, was of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty...

 in 1698, in which he proclaimed that tolls should no longer be collected there. The village was visited in 1868 by members of the Napier Expedition

1868 Expedition to Abyssinia

The British 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia was a punitive expedition carried out by armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire...

, who found the church in ruins; they were told that the church had been reduced to its current state by treasure-seekers acting on the orders of Dejazmach Sabagadis

Sabagadis

Sabagadis was a Dejazmach or governor of Tigray, a province in northern Ethiopia. He was the son of Shum Waldu of Agame, and a member of the Irob people.- Life :...

. Based on the "limited information now recoverable", David Phillipson assigns the construction of this church a "Late Aksumite or, perhaps, a subsequent date".

Records at the Nordic Africa Institute website provide details of a primary school in Agula during the year 1968.

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency

Central Statistical Agency (Ethiopia)

The Central Statistical Agency is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth, as well as to act as an official training center in that field. It is part of the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and...

 of Ethiopia released in 2005, Agula has an estimated total population of 4,636, of whom 2,229 are men and 2,407 are women. The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 2,666 of whom 1,187 were men and 1,479 were women. It is one of three towns in Wukro

Wukro (woreda)

Wukro woreda, also known as Kilte Awulaelo, is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Misraqawi Zone, Wukro is bordered on the south by the Debubawi Zone, on the west by the Mehakelegnaw Zone, on the north by Hawzen, and on the east by Atsbi Wenberta. Wukro is the...

 woreda

Woreda

Woreda is an administrative division of Ethiopia , equivalent to a district . Woredas are composed of a number of Kebele, or neighborhood associations, which are the smallest unit of local government in Ethiopia...

.