a slide show on
www.mabot.com
|
|
a slide show on |
 |
The brightly painted (Italian, I think) town center. Left shows our hotel, right the telecoms builing where I spent all afternoon phoning AA to move my flight back to Nairobi. |  |
(Thomas and I headed off to the Simien Mountains from here, but the things I saw in Gonder afterwards somehow fit in here.)
Debre Birham Selassie, to be exact. One of the few such chuches to survive the muslim assault by Gragan the left-handed in 1531.
 |
 |
|
 |
The faces (saints?) on the roof, and a scene from the crusades.
|
|
dating from when Gonder was the capital. Each king built a castle:
|
Fasil's is the most famous and best preserved, but unfortunately you can't go in. That didn't deter a wedding party though
|
 |
|
 |
||
|
Scaffold on Fasil's |
 |
Not all are so well preserved. Some were bombed in WW2 when the Italians had their HQ here. |
Sunset
from the Gihon Hotel, overlooking the town, on my last day. Very good dinner
on borrowed money, the next morning I was able to convert some before flying
to Lalibela.
But in the slide show, you haven't yet seen the Simien Mountains, so go there first: >>>
| by Michael Abbott (email)
www: July 2000 ©
www.mabot.com > east africa |
