Addis Ababa: Cathedral, Museums and Cultural History

Addis Ababa can be explored through a wide range of cultural themes: sacred architecture, portraits from the capital’s early years, paleontological finds and Islamic writings. This gives you a choice of subjects for planning your trip, from architectural history and urban history to collections spanning a broader period. Unity Park adds a place with its own distinctive park and wildlife profile to these themes.

Sacred Architecture and Urban History

Arada Giyorgis Cathedral is an octagonal Orthodox cathedral with Belle Époque architecture. Italian prisoners built it in 1896. It also houses a relic of Saint George that had been taken to the battlefield. Its form, style and history each offer a different perspective: the cathedral can be understood both through its architecture and through its history and the relic associated with a battlefield.

Museums with Diverse Collections

The Addis Ababa Museum displays portraits of Empress Taitu, Lij Iyasu and Empress Zewditu, as well as images from the capital’s early years. Individual figures are presented alongside a visual perspective on the city’s history. The National Museum of Ethiopia houses the 3.2-million-year-old skeleton Lucy, as well as paleontological, historical and cultural artifacts. Its collection ranges from a specific find to other records of the past.

In the Mechanisa neighborhood in central Addis Ababa, the Bilalul Habeshi Museum has a collection of architectural works from mosques and historic Muslim graves. A dedicated hall is devoted to Ethiopia’s oldest manuscripts and Islamic writings. Architecture and written culture offer two distinct ways of engaging with Muslim heritage here.

Unity Park

Unity Park was officially inaugurated and opened to the public on October 10, 2019. The park includes a zoo with meerkats, peacocks, cheetahs, white lions, wild dogs and gelada baboons, as well as an aviary and a safari. This combination sets the park apart thematically from cultural sites focused on collections and architectural history. For your specific plans, check the current visitor information for the attractions before your visit.

Ethiopia: Landscapes and Cultural Heritage

Beyond the main destination of Ethiopia, there are additional, distinct landscape and cultural themes. The Konso Cultural Landscape features extensive dry-stone terraces: they protect the soil from erosion, retain water and form cultivated agricultural terraces. In the Gedeo Cultural Landscape, mature trees provide shade for enset, coffee and other food crops. Both examples illustrate different ways in which landscape and agricultural use work together.

The mountain landscapes also have their own distinctive features. Bale Mountains National Park includes Africa’s largest area of Afroalpine habitats above 3,000 meters, as well as numerous glacial lakes, wetlands and moorlands. On the southern slopes of the Bale Mountains, the landscape transitions into Harenna Forest, Ethiopia’s second-largest humid tropical forest, which also includes areas of cloud forest. Simien National Park, in turn, is characterized by rugged mountain peaks, deep valleys and steep escarpments with elevation differences of around 1,500 meters. Walia ibex, gelada baboons and Ethiopian wolves live there.

Discover more destinations: North Shewa, Kitime, Tigray, Dire Dawa, Harari, Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region.

View the overview of the wider destination: Ethiopia.