UNSPECIAL No 632 – Septembre - September 2004

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Patchwork design 
Ethiopian landscape sceneries

Northwest of Addis – the Rift Valley and its peoples 
Text and Photos: Pierre-Michel Virot, photographer of the World Health Organization

Unique among African countries, the ancient Ethiopian monarchy maintained its freedom from colonial rule, one exception being the Italian occupation of 1936-41. Ethiopia has a variety of distinct geographical zones and contrasts, varying as much as 120 metres below sea level in the harsh salt flats of the Danakil depression, to a 4618 meter peak – Ras Dashan, the fourth highest peak in Africa, in the Simien mountains The most distinctive feature is the northern part of the Great Rift Valley, which runs through the entire length of the country in a northeast-southwest direction. In the centre of the country is a high plateau region. This rugged tableland is bordered by steep slopes on the northwest. Those are massive highland complex of mountains and dissected plateaus divided by Great Rift Valley running generally southwest to northeast and surrounded by lowlands, steppes, or semi deserts.

The population of Ethiopia has reached over 67 million people. The ethnic groups and languages are distinguishable ethnolinguistic entities, some speaking the same language, they are estimated at more than 100; at least seventy languages are spoken as mother tongue.

Roughly 30 percent of total population consists of the Amhara, whose native language —Amharic—is also spoken by additional 20 percent of the population as a second tongue and therefore Amtharic is Ethiopia's official language.

 

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