January 14, 2020: Exploring the Ancient Capital of Gondar.

January 21, 2020 cjbishop@yahoo.com

I was up at 4:30 AM and decided to go to the lobby of the hotel as the internet should be stronger there. The night staff were asleep on the couch! Internet is not very good here and virtually non-existent in my room.

We are scheduled to visit the castle complex here in Gondar (also spelled Gonder) today. Currently it is 51 degrees with an expected high of 80. I have not seen a cloud since I arrived in Ethiopia. Every day has been sunny with cool evenings and bright warm days. The humidity is low and there is usually a breeze, making sightseeing very pleasant. There is always a supply of bottle water in our vehicles to keep us hydrated.

Gondar was the capital called the “City of Castles” or the “Camelot of Africa”. It was the capital of Ethiopia from 1632 to 1855, and it has the remains of 12 castles and palaces constructed by a series of emperors from Fasilides (reigned 1632–67) to Iyasu II (1730–55). The ruins of these structures stand within a walled imperial enclosure called Fasil Ghebbi. By 1667 Gondar had a population of 65,000 people.

Our morning stop was at the Royal Enclosure, a complex of 6 important castles built in the 17-18th centuries. The most important and the one still mostly standing is the palace of Fasiladas, built sometime around 1637. We toured it, seeing the large reception hall and dining room. Next we visited the castle built by Iyasu I, the son of Yohanes I.it is not as complete but still impressive. There are other ruins on the site, like a library and large dining hall built by subsequent emperors. The tour was made even more interesting because there were young people practicing for the upcoming Timkat Festival. There was singing and dancing as well as a mock dinner where the Ethiopian way of eating is explained and demonstrated. I, and several others were coerced into dancing some Ethiopian folk dances. I maintain add that my portrayal of the male warrior dance was well received by the local dancers!

The Palace of Emperor Fasilides, the founder of Gondar.

Haile, our local tour guide, dressed the part for today’s guiding..

What the palace guards would have looked like, minus the sneakers they are wearing.

Asking permission to enter the Emperor’s Palace

The emperor’s court in the main reception hall.

Another of the castle ruins in the complex.

Looking at the roof in one of the ruins.

Young adults practicing for the upcoming Timkat festival.

Note the fancy hairdos on the ladies. They all had “big hair” .

They all are great dancers. They taught several of us how to do the dance. I was one of the participants.

Some of the ruins of other buildings in the complex.

Inside a dining hall that would support hundreds of people.

How the Ethiopians eat their meals- in the round with a shared plate. They prefer tables of 5 or 7.

They are rehearsing for the Timkat Fesitval.

One of the other 6 palaces in the complex.

Girls demonstrating household chores like grinding and crushing. In the background are horse stables and a huge dining hall.

I thought poinsettias are only in Mexico. Obviously not.

We next went to the Empress Mentewab’s Kuskuam Complex to specifically see Fasilades’s bath, in essence, a very large swimming pool. It was built during the time of Fasilades and Iyasu. It is now only filled and used during the Timkat Festival for the baptism of the attendees. The walls around the pool have some of those fig trees with huge exposed roots , like you see at the temples of Cambodia. It reminded me of what we saw at Ankor Thom.

Fasilides’s pool, used by Emperor Fasilades, It was surprisingly large.

Stands for people to watch the baptism ceremony on Epiphany here at Fasilades’s pool. Tragically it collapsed during the Timkat festival and many people died.

Some of the roots of a fig tree growing on the walls surrounding the pool.

Another view of the walls with fig trees growing on them.

We took a quick stroll through the market in Gondar on our way to having lunch at a popular Gondar restaurant called the Three Sisters. It is a classical Ethiopian restaurant which serves a luncheon buffet offering a great variety of Ethiopian dishes. I tried a bit of many dishes; sorry to say it is not my most favorite food group. Interesting fact: Several of our group have complained that ala carts dishes are not hot; they are barely lukewarm and they sometimes send them back to be heated more. Chris said it is because Ethiopians eat with their hands the served food cannot be too hot. Never thought about that.

You have to often dodge animals in the market.

I asked permission to take their picture. The youngster smiled a lot.

The afternoon was reserved for a visit to the Debre Birhan Trinity Church, considered time be one of the more beautiful churches in Ethiopia. It was built in the 17th century and almost destroyed in 1888 when the Sudanese dervishes invaded the area. Somehow it survived. It is not much to see on the outside, but on the inside the paintings and frescos are beautiful.

One wall of the church. All walls were covered with paintings or frescos.

The Holy Trinity is a common painting in churches.

The ceiling is covered with paintings of angels looking down on us.

Haile explaining the drum design and demonstrating how it is played.

An interesting posting outside the church.

Not far away were the ruins of Mentewab’s castle. Mentewab was Empress of Ethiopia, wife of Emperor Bakaffa and a major political figure during the reigns of her son, Emperor Iyasu and her grandson Iyoas I. Empress Mentewab commissioned the construction of several magnificent buildings in Gondar, most notably, Mentewab’s Castle.