A little bit about Gondor Ethopia
Gondar is a city in Ethiopia, which was once the old imperial capital and located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region. Gondar is north of Lake Tana and southwest of the Simien Mountains. The city has a latitude and longitude of 12°36′N 37°28′E / 12.6°N 37.467°E / 12.6; 37.467 with an elevation of 2133 meters above sea level.
Gondar was founded by Emperor Fasilides around the year 1635, and grew as an agricultural and market town. Fasilides built his castle and a pool. The five emperors who followed him also built their palaces in the town.
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. The town served as Ethiopia’s capital until 1855; the city was plundered and burnt in 1864, then devastated again in December, 1866. Abdallahi ibn Muhammad sacked Gondar when he invaded Ethiopia in 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 Italians in 1936, Gondar was further developed under Italian occupation. During the Second World War, Italian forces made their last stand in Gondar in November 1941, after Addis Ababa fell to British forces six months before. The area of Gondar was one of the main centers of activity of Italian guerrilla against the British forces until summer 1943. 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, stables, Mentewab’s Castle, a chancellery and library. 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 Mentewab; 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 town has also an airport and Gondar University which includes Ethiopia’s main faculty of medicine. Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2008, Gondar has an estimated total population of 231,977; of whom 83.31% are adhered to Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and 15.83% are Muslims. Protestant Christians are only 0.4% of the total population. There are also a sizable number of Ethiopian Jews, some of whom live in temporary camps, hoping to emigrate to Israel.
