some gardens

(March 16 - 17, 2007: Addis Ababa.)

Some gardens around Addis Ababa, public and private:

I think as much as anything, it's the quality of the sunshine that fascinates me in these gardens, where the sun is almost directly overhead every day of the year. Ethiopia, after all, boasts 13 months of sunshine (it follows the Julian calendar)!

Euphorbia splendens var. milii , crown-of-thorns

bottle brush tree, Callistemon rigidus

my friend, Kassahun, in the garden beside the Seventh-Day Adventist church in Addis.

On the grounds of Holy Trinity Cathedral (next few photos below), off Entoto Road, north of the centre of Addis, lovely trees cast shade on the burial place of many patriots who lost their lives during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1933-1941). Also found here is the tomb of Sylvia Pankhurst, daughter of the famous suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst. Sylvia Pankhurst was one of the few people outside Ethiopia who protested the Italian occupation. She and some of her heirs later lived in and have written extensively about Ethiopia.

On the grounds is also a memorial to those high-ranking ministers and officials who were killed in the infamous Death of the Sixty, on the night of December 23, 1974, executed by the Derg.

bouganvillea blossoms

Below: Emperor Haile Selassie's former palace is now the home of the University of Addis Ababa's main campus off Entoto Road. In the palace itself, some parts, such as the emperor's bedroom and bath have been retained as they were when the Emperor's family lived there. The palace also houses the library of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies and the Ethnological Museum.

The Ethnological Museum is layed out with the unique thematic arrangement of life cycles ( for example: birth, marriage, death, etc.). It houses representative artifacts from many diverse peoples who live in Ethiopia.

A photo below of some architectural detail of the entrance hall of the Ethnological Museum -- before I was informed that taking photographs inside the museum is strictly forbidden!