Gondar

I arrived in Gondar shaken and out of sorts.  Local transportation was getting to me.  The kind of local transportation where goats and chickens ride with you on the bus. It had been a long and dusty day.  I still couldn't speak the language, so I kept to myself for most of the ride.  I knew the basic pleasantries, but that was about it.  The national tongue in Ethiopia is Amharic which is a Semitic language, like Hebrew and Arabic. Fear reared its dark head in Gondar.  It finally sank in that I was alone, a long way from home, with no hotel reservation.  I did however posses the name of a hotel which I was planning to find, so that was my first goal when we arrived.  I succeeded!  The rate was about $10/night.  They had hot water, soap and toilet paper rations.  Score. The hotel didn't have a restaurant, but it had a fridge which they had stocked with local beer.  Good local beer.  So I ordered a few bottles,  and went to find myself in my room.  I unpacked my life in bags and made myself at home.  It took a beautiful sunset, about two liters of Dashen, and half a pack of Nyala for me to work up the courage to venture across the street to find some food.   

There was a security guard at the gate.  The floors were marble and crystal chandeliers hung in the foyer and in the dining room.  People spoke English.  Napkins were folded like animals on plates. I sat at the only table on the outdoor terrace and ordered tilapia and a glass of white wine from Australia, which cost more than my hotel room.  I was soothed. It would be the first and last time I ate alone at an expensive restaurant in Ethiopia.  I didn't want to miss the point.   I was here for as much culture as I could find, or as much as could find me.  Oh, and yes, I was a poor Ferenji who could in no way sustain luxury.  Just a taste.  I began to feel a certain love for local transportation, and food bought through the window of a bus. Ethiopia has a new surprise around every corner. I did not know there was a Beta Israel.  I did not know that I was there.  Israelites, Orthodox Christians, and Muslims lived peaceably in Ethiopia for thousands of years.  Peace and Religion... Imagine. The main attraction is the castle complex at Gondar, Fasil Ghebbi, which was built during the 17th and 18th centuries.  It was the first fortified city built by the Solomonic Emperors of Ethiopia.  Before this time, the Emperors lived in royal mobile camps, traveling with their entourage, family and guards, living off the bounty of the land which was harvested by local farmers. The royal buildings at Fasil Ghebbi are architecturally influenced by Nubian, Arab and Baroque styles. In 1668, Emperor Yohannes I declared that Gondar would be divided into quadrants, separated according to the religious beliefs of the people.  There had been social unrest since the Jesuits arrived, and this was to alleviate the problem.  The Nobility had a quadrant, the Orthodox Christians had a quadrant, the Israelites had a quadrant and the people of Islam had a quadrant.  Times were changing. Debre Bihran Selassie is a fortified church, surrounded by a thick wall with 12 towers around. It was built at the same time as Fasil Gebbri, which is also surrounded by a wall, with 12 gates.  It is apparently the only church constructed in the Gondar architectural style left standing in Ethiopia, so clearly the fortification worked. The interior wall of the church above the main entrance, opposite the altar depicts a scene related to the division of Gondar into quarters (at least that's what I understood from the priest).  He told me Mohammad is on the camel at the bottom right. Mohammed in an Orthodox Church?  If this church was built in the late 1600's, and Muhammad lived more than 1000 years before this, it is incredibly interesting that Orthodox Christians felt it appropriate to depict him on the walls of this church.  The priest pointed out; and you can see in the photo, it looks like someone at some point tried to destroy this side of the painting with fire. Outside, within the fortified walls, cedar trees grow taller than I have ever seen.