…to some countries you travel with the worst fears. It was just in November 2022, after two years of fighting in Tigray, that a ceasefire was arranged by the African Union. It is estimated that half a million people have been killed in the conflict and two million people have fled. According to UN human rights experts, executions, rape, sexual violence and starvation of civilians have been a method of warfare from the beginning. But the public does not perceive the war, especially not in Europe. 

According to World Hunger Aid (WHH), around 22 million people are not getting enough to eat. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world.

Nevertheless the Ethiopia I saw also had a very different side: heartiness, love of life, openness and gratitude. There was laughter in every greeting, passion in every action to show the best of Ethiopia. And there was this pleasant pride. Pride in Ethiopia’s 3000 years of cultural history, its independence, its central importance to the heritage of modern man. Anyone who studies religion in the world will find a unique kind of Christian faith here. An open and intensely lived religion that is nevertheless highly traditional. I have rarely seen people follow their call of the soul so impressively, with devotion and depth. Ethiopia is one of the first Christian kingdoms in the world.

The north of Ethiopia impresses with its highlands, all over 2000 m above sea level. The Jelada herds in the mountainous grasslands (Simien Mountains) are spectacular and unique in the world. Ethiopia’s highlands is also the source of the Nile and, with Lake Tana, an enormous source of fertility and diversity. Ethiopia is one of the eight genetic centres of the world, especially for cereals and vegetables.

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IMPRESSION

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>>> UNESCO World Heritage Convention – Lalibella

>>> Vavilov center

>>> Simien Mountains National Park

>>> The World Factbook

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…I first read this proverb in Mongolia, but now, in the light of the headlamp on the nightly way to the mountain peak, nothing better described this unique moment. While the legs in diligent obedience, step by step, overcame the difficulty of the way, the spirit soared towards the glittering sky, illuminated by the thousands of stars of the Milky Way. Not far and it was done. The darkness slowly gave way to the light of the sun and a new day dawned. 2285 meters above sea level the air was particularly clear and the cold air streamed through the lungs and made the heart beat a little faster. Was it the height or the moment? Laughing, we stood on the Djebel Musa (Mount Sinai), at the foot of which the time honered St. Catherine’s Monastery was build, isolated and never destroyed since the 6th century AD. Unreal like the moment, was also the fact, that 1400 years before us supposedly enlightened humans, Islamic rulers in the sign of respect and in the principle of peace, guaranteed the uninterrupted existence of the Christian monastery on Muslim soil.

The orthodox St. Catherine’s Monastery is one of the oldest monasteries in Christianity and one of the few places in the world where Jewish, Christian and Islamic cultural history meet each other. According to history, this is the place where Moses received the 10 holy commandments after leaving Egypt.

The outstanding and unique library is probably the world’s oldest surviving collection of early Christian manuscripts and icons. The library contains more than six thousand manuscripts in Greek, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic, Georgian, Armenian and Ancient Ethiopian, including first editions of Homer (1488) and Plato (1513), and the Comedies of Aristophanes (1498). Also discovered here and dated to the 4th century was the Codex Sinaiticus. Alongside the Codex Vaticanus it is considered to be the oldest almost completely preserved Bible manuscript.

IMPRESSION

>>> Mount Sinai Monastery

>>> The Ashtiname of Muhammad 

>>> Saint Catherine’s Monastery