Gondar or
Gonder (
Ge'ezGe'ez , also called Ethiopic, is an abugida script that was originally developed to write Ge'ez, now the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church...
: ጎንደር
Gōnder, older ጐንደር
Gʷandar, modern pronunciation
Gʷender) is a city in
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
, which was once the old imperial capital and capital of the historic
BegemderBegemder was a province in the northwestern part of Ethiopia. There are several proposed etymologies for this name...
province. As a result, the old province of Begemder is sometimes referred to as Gondar. Located in the
Semien Gondar ZoneSemien Gondar is a Zone in the Ethiopian Amhara Region. This Zone is named for the city of Gondar, the capital of Ethiopia until the mid-19th century, which has often been used as a name for the 20th century province of Begemder....
of the
Amhara RegionAmhara is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia, containing the homeland of the Amhara people. Previously known as Region 3, its capital is Bahir Dar....
, Gondar is north of
Lake TanaLake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile and is the largest lake in Ethiopia...
on the Lesser Angereb River and southwest of the Simien Mountains. The city has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 2133 meters above sea level.
History
Until the 16th century, the
SolomonicThe Solomonic dynasty is the traditional Imperial House of Ethiopia, claiming descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who is said to have given birth to the traditional first king Menelik I after her Biblically described visit to Solomon in Jerusalem...
Emperors of EthiopiaThe Emperor of Ethiopia was the hereditary ruler of Ethiopia until the abolition of the monarchy in 1974. The Emperor was the head of state and head of government, with ultimate executive, judicial and legislative power in that country...
usually had no fixed capital, instead living in
tentA tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or attached to a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs...
s in temporary royal camps as they moved around their realms while their family, bodyguard and retinue devoured surplus crops and cut down nearby trees for firewood. One exception to this rule was
Debre BerhanDebre Berhan is a city and woreda in central Ethiopia. Located in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region, about 120 kilometers north east of Addis Ababa on the paved highway to Dessie, the town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 2840 meters...
, founded by
Zara YaqobZar'a Ya`qob or Zera Yacob was of Ethiopia , and a member of the Solomonic dynasty...
in 1456; Tegulet in
ShewaShewa is a historical region of Ethiopia. Formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire, the Ethiopian modern capital Addis Ababa is located at its center....
was also essentially the capital during the first century of Solomonic rule.
Beginning with Emperor
MenasMenas , throne name Admas Sagad I was of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was a brother of Gelawdewos.During Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi's invasion of Ethiopia, Menas had been captured but treated well as a valuable prisoner...
in 1559, the rulers of Ethiopia began spending the rainy season near
Lake TanaLake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile and is the largest lake in Ethiopia...
, often returning to the same location again and again. These encampments, which flourished as cities for a short time, include
EmfrazEmfraz or Enfraz is a historic town and district in northern Ethiopia...
, Ayba,
GorgoraGorgora is a town and peninsula in northwestern Ethiopia...
, and Dankaz.
Gondar was founded by Emperor
FasilidesFasilides was of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty...
around the year 1635, and grew as an agricultural and
market townMarket town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
. There was a superstition at the time that the capital's name should begin with the letter 'Gʷa' (modern pronunciation 'Gʷe'; Gonder was originally spelt Gʷandar), which also contributed to Gorgora's (founded as Gʷargʷara) growth in the centuries after 1600. Tradition also states that a buffalo led the Emperor Fasilides to a pool beside the Angereb, where an "old and venerable hermit" told the Emperor he would locate his capital there. Fasilides had the pool filled in and built his castle on that same site. The emperor also built a total of seven churches; the first two, Fit Mikael and Fit Abbo, were built to end local
epidemicDefining an epidemic can be subjective, depending in part on what is "expected". An epidemic may be restricted to one locale , more general or even global...
s. The five emperors who followed him also built their palaces in the town.
In 1668, as a result of a church council, the Emperor
Yohannes IYohannes I , throne name A'ilaf Sagad was of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty...
ordered that the inhabitants of Gondar be segregated by religion. This caused the
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
s to move into their own quarter,
Islamge (Ge'ez: እስላምጌ "Islam place," or "Islam country") or
Islam Bet (እስላም ቤት "House of Islam," lit. "Islam house"), within two years. This quarter came to be known as Addis Alem.
During the seventeenth century, the city's population is estimated to have exceeded 60,000. Many of the buildings from this period survive, despite the turmoil of the eighteenth century. By the reign of
Iyasu the GreatIyasu I , also known as Iyasu the Great, was of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty...
, Gondar had acquired a sense of community identity; when the Emperor called upon the inhabitants to decamp and follow him on his campaign against the Oromo in
DamotDamot was a medieval kingdom in what is now Ethiopia, and tributary to the Ethiopian Empire. Originally located south of the Abay and west of the Muger River, under the pressure of Oromo attacks the rulers were forced to resettle north of the Abay in southern Gojjam between 1574 and 1606.Bernard...
and
GojjamGojjam was a province in the north-western part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Debre Marqos. This province is distinctive for lying entirely within the bend of the Abbay River from its outflow from Lake Tana to the Sudanese border.Gojjam's earliest western boundary was undefined...
, as had the court and subjects of earlier emperors, they refused. Although Gondar was by any definition a city, it was not a melting pot of diverse traditions, nor Ethiopia's window to the larger world, according to Donald Levine. "It served rather as an agent for the quickened development of the Amhara's own culture. And thus it became a focus of national pride... not as a hotbed of alien custom and immorality, as they often regard
Addis AbabaAddis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
today, but as the most perfect embodiment of their traditional values." As Levine elaborates in a footnote, it was an orthogenetic pattern of development, as distinguished from an heterogenetic one.
The town served as Ethiopia's capital until Tewodros II moved the Imperial capital to Magadala upon being crowned Emperor in 1855; the city was plundered and burnt in 1864, then devastated again in December, 1866.
Abdallahi ibn MuhammadAbdullah Ibn-Mohammed or Abdullah al-Taaisha, also known as "The Khalifa" was a Sudanese Ansar General and ruler....
sacked Gondar when he invaded Ethiopia June 1887. Gondar was ravaged again in 23 January in the next year, when the Sudanese invaders set fire to almost every one of the city's churches.
After the conquest of Ethiopia by the
Kingdom of ItalyThere have been several distinct entities known as the Kingdom of Italy. Italy under the rule of Odoacer from 476 to 493 is often called the kingdom of Italy, since it encompassed the Roman province of Italy and Odoacer is periodically styled rex...
in 1936, Gondar was further developed under
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
occupation. During the Second World War, Italian forces made their last stand in Gondar in November 1941, after
Addis AbabaAddis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
fell to
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
forces six months before. The area of Gondar was one of the main centers of activity of
Italian guerrillaThe Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia was as an armed struggle fought from the summer of 1941 to the autumn of 1943 by remnants of Italian troops in Italian East Africa, following the Italian defeat during the East African Campaign of World War II.-History:...
against the British forces until summer 1943.
During the
Ethiopian Civil WarThe Ethiopian Civil War began on September 12, 1974 when the Marxist Derg staged a coup d'état against Emperor Haile Selassie, and lasted until the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front , a coalition of rebel groups, overthrew the government in 1991.The war overlapped other Cold War...
, the forces of the
Ethiopian Democratic UnionThe Ethiopian Democratic Union or EDU, also known as Teranafit , was the oldest of the political parites that formed in opposition to the Derg regime of Ethiopia....
gained control of large parts of
BegemderBegemder was a province in the northwestern part of Ethiopia. There are several proposed etymologies for this name...
, and during parts of 1977 operated within a few miles of Gondar, and appeared to be at the point of capturing the city. As part of Operation Tewodros near the end of the Civil War, Gondar was captured by the
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic FrontThe Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front is the ruling political coalition in Ethiopia.It is an alliance of four other groups: the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization , the Amhara National Democratic Movement, the South Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Front and the Tigrayan Peoples'...
in March 1991.
Points of interest
Gondar traditionally was divided into several neighborhoods or quarters: Addis Alem, where the Moslem inhabitants dwelled (as mentioned above); Kayla Meda, where the adherents of
Beta IsraelBeta Israel is the Historical name of Jewish community from Ethiopia, but with most now living in Israel. They are also known as Falasha by non-Jewish Ethiopians, but the Jews consider the term derogatory...
lived; Abun Bet, centered on the residence of the
AbunaAlso see Leaders of ChristianityAbun is the title of the metropolitan bishop or head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church...
, or nominal head of the Ethiopian Church; and Qagn Bet, home to the nobility. Gondar is also a noted center of ecclesiastical learning of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and known for having 44 churches, for many years more than any other settlement in Ethiopia.
thumb
The modern city of Gondar is popular as a tourist attraction for its many picturesque ruins in the Royal Enclosure, from which the Emperors once reigned. The most famous buildings in the city lie in the Royal Enclosure, which include Fasilides castle, Iyasu's Palace, Dawit's Hall, a banqueting hall,
stableA stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...
s, Mentewab's Castle, a
chancelleryChancellery is the office of the chancellor, sometimes also referred to as the chancery. Both of those words have other meanings as well.Chancellery can specifically refer to:...
,
libraryA library is a collection of sources, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed; it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. It can mean the collection,...
and three churches. Near the city lie Fasiladas' Bath, home to an annual ceremony where it is blessed and then opened for bathing; the Qusquam complex, built by Empress
MentewabMentewab , was Empress of Ethiopia, consort of Emperor Bakaffa, mother of Iyasu II and grandmother of Iyoas I. She was also known officially by her baptismal name of Welete Giyorgis Mentewab (Ge'ez : ምንትዋብ min-tiwwāb, Amharic: "How beautiful"; circa 1706 - 27 June 1773), was Empress of Ethiopia,...
; the eighteenth century Ras Mikael Sehul's Palace and the Debre Berhan Selassie Church.
Downtown Gondar shows the influence of the Italian occupation of the late 1930s. The main piazza features shops, a cinema, and other public buildings in a simplified Italian
ModerneModerne has several meanings:* A more general term for a style of architecture that became popular in 1925 and was described in the 1960's as "Art Deco"...
style still distinctively of the period despite later changes and, frequently, neglect. Villas and flats in the nearby quarter that once housed occupation officials and colonists are also of interest.
The town is also home to an airport (ICAO code HAGN, IATA GDQ), and Gondar University which includes Ethiopia's main faculty of medicine. Intercity bus service is provided by the
Selam Bus Line Share CompanySelam Bus Line S.C. is one of Ethiopia's largest long distance bus companies. It was founded in 1996 by the Tigray Development Association to address the nation-wide need for public transportation, and commenced operations 9 April, 1996 with a fleet of 25 IVECO buses...
.
Demographics
Based on figures from the
Central Statistical AgencyThe 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...
in 2005, Gondar has an estimated total population of 194,773 of whom 97,625 are men and 97,148 are women. The
woredaWoreda 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...
has an estimated area of 40.27 square kilometers, which gives Gondar a density of 4,836.70 people per square kilometer. The 1994 census reported this city had a total population of 112,249 of whom 51,366 were males and 60,883 were females.
The 1994 national census reported a total population for Gondar of 112,249 in 21,695 households, of whom 51,366 were men and 60,883 women. The three largest ethnic groups reported in Gondar Zuria were the
AmharaThe Amhara are an ethnic group in the central highlands of Ethiopia. Numbering about 19.8 million people, they comprise 26 percent of the country's population, according to the 2007 national census...
(88.91%), the
TigrayanThe Tigray-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. A few also live in Ethiopia's former provinces of Begemder and Wollo, which are today mostly part of Amhara Region, though a few regions ...
(6.74%), and the
QemantThe Qemant are a small ethnic group in Ethiopia, who, despite their close historical and ethnic relationship, should not be confused with the Beta Israel....
(2.37%); all other ethnic groups made up 1.98% of the population.
AmharicAmharic is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara. It is the second most-spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Thus, it has official status and is used nationwide...
was spoken as a first language by 94.57%, and 4.67% spoke
TigrinyaTigrinya , also spelled Tigrigna, Tigrina, Tigriña, less commonly Tigrinian, Tigrinyan, is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigray-Tigrinya people in central Eritrea , where it is one of the two dominant languages of Eritrea, and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia Tigrinya ( ትግርኛ, tigriññā), also...
; the remaining 0.76% spoke all other primary languages reported. 83.31% practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and 15.83% of the population said they were
MuslimAccording to the latest 1994 national census, Islam is the second most widely practiced religion in Ethiopia after Christianity, with over 25 million of Ethiopians adhering to Islam according to the 2007 national census, having arrived in Ethiopia in 615 .-History:The first Muslims in Ethiopia...
.
Sister City
As designated by
Sister Cities InternationalSister Cities International is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and fostering sister cities, especially between cities in the United States and cities in other countries....
, Gondar is a
sister citySister cities, also known as town twinning, is an agreement between towns, cities and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties...
with
- Corvallis, Oregon
Corvallis is a city located in central western Oregon, United States. It is the county seat of Benton County and the principal city of the "Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area", which encompasses all of Benton County...
Rishon LeZionRishon LeZion , is the fourth-largest city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area. The city had a population of 224,300 at the end of 2007...
, IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
External links