About Ethiopia

A mountainous country in the northeast of Africa, Ethiopia is Black Africa oldest state and was formerly known as Abyssinia. An interesting history behind it shows that Ethiopian emperors considered themselves to be descendants of King Solomon and the beautiful Queen of Sheba. The last emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Sellasie I, was deposed by armed Marxist forces in 1974.

While a high plateau capped with rugged mountains covers much of Ethiopia, lowland deserts surround the plateau region. The heart of the country is a high tableland, known as the Ethiopian Plateau that covers more than half the total area of the country. The plateau is split diagonally in a northeastern to southwestern direction by the Great Rift Valley and is intersected by many rivers and deep valleys. The northeastern edges of the plateau are marked by steep cliffs, which descend to about 4,000 ft or more to the Denakil Desert. Along the western border, the plateau descends to the desert of Sudan and along the southern and southwestern areas, the plateau lowers towards Lake Turkana.

The lower areas of the tropical zone have sparse vegetation consisting of desert shrubs, thornbushes, and coarse savanna grasses. In the valleys and ravines, almost every form of African vegetation

grows in abundance. The temperate zone is largely covered with grassland. The fauna of Ethiopia include the giraffe, leopard, hippopotamus, lion, elephant, antelope, and rhinoceros. The caracal, jackal, hyena, and various species of monkey are also common. Ethiopia is also home to 813 bird species. Birds of prey include the eagle, hawk, and vulture. Heron, parrot, and such game birds as the snipe, partridge, teal, pigeon, and bustard are found in abundance.

Ethiopia is bounded on the northeast by Eritrea and Djibouti, on the east and southeast by Somalia, on the southwest by Kenya, and on the west and northwest by Sudan.

While the tropical zone has an average annual temperature of about 27°C and receives less than about 500 mm of rain annually, the subtropical zone, which includes most of the highland plateau, has an average temperature of about 22°C with an annual rainfall ranging from about 500 to 1,500 mm. Areas, say above 8,000 ft, has an average temperature of about 16°C and an annual rainfall between about 1,300 and 1,800 mm. The rainy season occurs between mid-June and September, followed by a dry season that may see few spells of rain in February or March.

Economy of Ethiopia, Its People, Culture & Flag