Ethiopia is considered as a ‘Land of Origins’ for many reasons, some of the outstanding ones are here.
Ethiopia, the origin of human kind
Ethiopia is the home of the earliest human kind that was proved by the oldest human ancestors ever found remains were in Ethiopia.
The first upright walking human kind, Lucy was discovered in maze of ravines in northeastern part of Ethiopia, Afar State in 1974 by Anthropologist Professor Donald Johansson and his student Tom Gray.
She was twenty years old and over one meter long. Lucy is known for her first specious of Homo Afaranesis (Homo specious named after Lucy), which believed has lived for over three million years before.
This UNESCO registered human skeleton that aged 3.2 million years, Afarnesis (Lucy
has since been proved to be the ancestral origin of both the genus Australopithecus and Homo –Sapiens according to information indicated from UNESCO.
It is also indicated that East African rift valley is almost the region where the contemporary human being and hominid ancestor evolved. The discovery of Lucy
demonstrated that walking upright progressed before behaviors which considered as a normal human behavior.
Describing human behavior, Anthropologist Donald Johansson said “Ethiopia deserves the title of ‘Cradle of Humankind”.
Ethiopia The origin of Coffee
Coffee bean and its properties were first discovered in Ethiopia. The birth place of “Arabica”, wild coffee plant as young goatherd named Kahlid, who noticed that his goats became hyperactive after eating coffee berries. And after, he was presented to his nearby monks that the coffee beans made his goats energetic. But in return, monks were initially condemned from using the berries considering it “evil stimulant”.
However, they tried to chew coffee beans for staying up during praying time, following of roasted coffee smelled. Later on, it was discovered that the roasted berries could be used as hot drink after crushing into powder. The area where coffee grows wild is named Kaffa, from which the name coffee is derived.
Currently, Ethiopia is the largest coffee exporting African country; and more than 320,000 hectares of land are covered with coffee trees.
Ethiopia, the origin of Blue Nile
The world’s longest river, Nile gets its main source from Blue Nile of Ethiopia. Blue Nile originates from North West of Ethiopia, Lake Tana.
The river starts from its spring named Gish Abay, about 1,828m above sea level and flows southeast. It is forty five meters long and 400 meter wide. It covers alluring fall which is made by the river is also situated on about 30 km downstream from Bahir Dar, a nearby town to its stream.
As well, it consists of four streams that vary from droplets in the dry season to large surface coverage of falls in summer.
As information indicated from Ethiopian Tourism Organization, Lake Tana is recently registered by UNESCO as biosphere reserve. This is an impressive fall named Tis Abay, meaning Nile that smokes. Tis Abay is one of the best tourist attractions in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia, land of impressive landscape, Wild life
Ethiopia is blessed with impressive landscape and varied climate. The world’s deepest lowland, Dankel and its colorful landscape, and Erta Ale, the world’s fifth long lasting lava volcano is located at Afar State in the Eastern part of Ethiopia.
Semein Mountains, one of the continent’s largest mountains with 12 peaks and topping about more than 4,000m above sea level and comprising epidemic wildlife like Chilada Baboon, Red Fox and Waliya Ibex.
Ethiopia home of legendary runners
The Great run which held every November also one symbol of Ethiopia’s running culture. The existing long distance runners like Darartu Tullu, Fatuma Roba, Berhane Adare, Tirunesh Dibaba, Almaz Ayana and Meseret Defar, Haile Gebresillassie, Kenenisa Bekele are just to mention but a few.
Ethiopia, land of architectural civilization
Monolithic obelisks, tombs, walls and religious buildings that existed over thousands of years has survived in Ethiopia Aksum Obelisks, Rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, Castle of Gonder (Fasil Ghebbi in local language), Harar Jegol are amongst iconic earlier architectural civilization which started from 10th up to 17th century.
As these origins are created and found in Ethiopia, it is reasonable to refer to Ethiopia as “Land of Origin”.
The Ethiopian Herald June 7/2019
BY YESUF ENDRIS
