10 Amazing, Fun & Interesting Facts about Ethiopia ****************************************************************** #1: The Birth Place of humanity Ethiopia is the origin of human beings and human technologies longer than almost anywhere else in the world. It is one of the best open air museums in the world in which the early direct ancestors of human being lived before millions of years. #2: The Watch & The Calendar Ethiopia counts its time on the opposite side of its clock. This can be tallied to being behind by 6 hours. 6 pm would be 12 noon and 12 noon would be 6 am. The Ethiopian calendar has 13 months. The calendar is eight years behind the Western calendar. The months are usually 30 days long but the last month has 5 or 6 days. September 11th is celebrated as the day of New Year. #3: The Ethiopian Alphabet Type of writing system: abugida (አቡጊዳ) Writing direction: left to right in horizontal lines. Each symbol represents a syllable consisting of a consonant plus a vowel. The basic signs are modified in a number of different ways to indicate the various vowels. There is no standard way of transliterating the Geez script into the Latin alphabet. There are thirty three basic shapes. These generally represent the consonants followed by the vowel ä. The basic shapes are altered in various ways to indicate a different vowel following the base consonant. #4: Coffee’s Birthplace Ethiopia is the country where coffee was first discovered. Hence it is considered coffee’s homeland. It was first noticed by a shepherd named Kaldi, whose goats started pacing restlessly after eating the plant’s leaves. The word coffee itself is considered borrowed from the southern Ethiopian lands of Kaffa. #5: Christianity & Ethiopia There are some interesting facts about Ethiopia related to the religion Christian, here they are: Ethiopia and its people, the Ethiopians have been mentioned in the Bible. The number of times varies from 40 to 60 according to different sources. There are a lot of churches here and this gives Ethiopia a prominent place in the World as well as Christian history. Ethiopia also claims that the final resting place of the Arc of the covenant is at a chapel in the holy city of Aksum, which was once, the capital of Ethiopia. #6: Islam & Ethiopia There are some interesting facts about Ethiopia related to the religion Islam, here they are: Ethiopia has been mentioned in the Koran. It is also worth mentioning that it has mentions in the Iliad and Oddessey. Ethiopia also happens to be the first country where Muslim prayers were held outside Arabia. Al Nejashi is the first mosque that has been built outside Arabia. Ethiopia was the country in which Mohamed’s followers found solace when they were persecuted. #7: League of Nations Ethiopia is one of the countries that have not been invaded and conquered. Italy had been defeated twice when it tried to. The country was the first to join the League of Nations, which soon proved to be fruitless. The nations belonging to this league would be given support known as ‘ collective support’. When mass murders and ethnic cleansing happened in Ethiopia, the others did not just bother. #8: African Union Emperor Hailesilassie I firmly believed that the states of Africa should unite and be its own master. This led to the birth of Pan Africanism. This thought materialized to what is the African Union today. #9: Hot Spots Addis Ababa is the highest city in Africa and the seat for African Union. The hottest place in the world is the Afar depression or the Afar triangle. The highlight is that it remains so throughout the year. #10: Sharing Names Ethiopian fathers and their children do not share last names. The children take the first name of their father as their last name. [ experienceethiopia/index.php/specials/bike-and-trek-through-gheralta-and-tembein/item/44-10-amazing-fun-interesting-facts-about-ethiopia#sthash.68apRicE.dpuf]
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 11:18:50 +0000