Harar: The Living Museum, the city you should visit in Ethiopia
HARAR -Among Ethiopia cities the most famous,
historical and well-known city, Harar or in Amharic named: ሐረር;
Harari: ሀረር; ጌይ Gēy) located in the eastern part of Ethiopia
approximately 500 km far away from Addis Ababa, at an elevation of 1,885
metres (6,184 ft). The city is the provincial capital
of the Harari Region.
Within Ethiopia's Islamic history, Harar is the
historical Muslim walled citadel, called the City of Saints, ranks only behind
the sanctified trio of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem known as Islam’s
fourth-holiest city. The city is an Islamic
landmark, with 82 same-says (92) mosques
and 438 Awaach (shrines of important Islamic scholars) crammed into 48 hectares
- the largest concentration in the world.
Religious significance aside, the ancient town
of Harar also served for centuries as the most important emporium in the Horn
of Africa, the trade pivot linking the ports of the Somali coast to the fertile
Ethiopian interior.
Since 2006, Harar Jugol has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its unique gey gar (city houses). which is considered the most stunning aspect of the city’s cultural heritage because of its exceptional interior design.
There are endless other delights: the
labyrinthine alleys, the busy marketplaces where colourfully-draped local
women sell deliciously juicy tropical fruits, pastel-painted cafes brewing
coffee plucked from the surrounding hills, the great hospitality of the people and
the architectural beauty of Harar Jugol. Generally, it is a lively and truly
welcoming city, with its multifaceted aura of cultural and architectural
integrity.
Harar, Again in 2002, UNESCO awarded ‘the
Cities for Peace Prize’, in recognition of its outstanding contribution to
the promotion of peace, tolerance and solidarity in everyday life.
The Historical Harar - Jugol.
Harar originated in the period of the
seventh and sixteenth centuries, during that time the city served as the
capital of the Adal Muslim state. Today,
Harar is the beautiful, multicultural capital of the Harari People Regional
State.
It is famous for its excellent hospitality,
bustling traditional markets, handicraft products and its museums. Centuries-old craft-making traditions including weaving, jewellery and bookbinding are
well preserved and of particular interest to culture enthusiasts.
Sherif Harari City Museum
one of Harar’s most beautiful buildings is the Sheriff Harar City Museum, the museum is a private museum curated by the collector Abdullahi Sherif, and the house is a wide-balconied double-storey mansion that splendidly combines elements of Islamic and Indian architecture. The house was built in the late 19th century by Ras (Prince) Mekonnen, whose son Ras Tefari (the future Emperor Haile Selassie) spent much of his childhood there. Among the many treasures on display are collections of antique Islamic manuscripts, coins minted in the city during the 18th century, traditional Harari costumes, musical instruments, textiles, jewellery, coins, basketry weaponry and household artefacts. A musical archive includes hundreds of field recordings made in and around Harar since the 1940s. The museum includes items from the following regional groups: Harari, Oromo, Amhara, Gurage, Somali and Argobba groups
Arthur Rimbaud Museum
Another late 19th-century architectural gem, the restored double-storey house where the poet Arthur Rimbaud is said to have lived now functions as a museum with displays dedicated to the poet and his years in Harar. The first floor houses a fascinating collection of monochrome photographs of the city taken in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Things to know about HARAR
• one
of the amazing activities in Harar is the feeding of wild hyenas, it is rooted in
the ancient Ashura ceremony, in every year when Ashura comes at the ceremony prepared
few bowls of porridge are left out for the hyenas, and the city’s fortunes over
the coming year are predicted based on how much is eaten. Nowadays
tourists can enjoy feeding hyenas
freely with no dangers
• The coffee bean of Harar has have heavy-bodied, spicy and fragrant flavour and it is to
firstborn still-produced
• in
1856 the British Sir Richard Burton was one of the first Europeans to visit HARAR and then
Arthur Rimbaud, the prodigious French poet who abandoned his writing aged 19,
then spent seven years travelling in Europe. Rimbaud moved to Harar in 1880 and worked as an arms trader there until he died in 1891.
• The
old walled city of Harar is known to its Harari inhabitants as Gey (‘City’). Which
means Gey Usu (‘City People’) and to their Semitic Harari tongue Gey Sinan
(‘City Language’).
Harar city houses (Gay Gar) about Two Thousand
traditional city houses, or gey gars, populate Harar Jugol, including one built
during Amir Abdushakur’s dynasty in 1783. Entered via a traditional carved wooden
door (gan beri), the split-level interior is centred on a living room (nedeba)
dominated by a carpet-draped elevated platform where most social activity
takes place. The niched walls are hung with myriad household items, notably the
circular flat polychrome injera baskets for which Harar is famed.
This open-plan area is flanked by two small
cells: the dera, a bedroom where newlyweds spend their first week of wedlock,
and the smaller kirtet, which functions as a cellar and storage room. Some
houses have an upper floor, or kuti kela, once used to store coffee and grains
but now usually adapted as an additional bedroom.
A good
example of a traditional gey gar, decorated with hundreds of vintage artefacts,
is the well-executed facsimile in the Harar Community Centre Museum. Local
guides can arrange for tourists to visit genuine lived-in Harari houses, and
those who want to immerse themselves deeper in the experience can overnight at
one of the city’s four family-run cultural guesthouses.
12 places should be visited in Harar trips
1 Roughly 3km in circumference, the 5m-high City Wall dates from the 16th
century and is breached by six gates, each with a different Harari,
Amharic and Oromo name.
2 Harar Jugol’s largest open space, Feres Megala was formerly an agricultural
market flanked by Amir Abdulahi Hall and Sheikh Bazikh Mosque, which was
demolished and replaced by the 19th-century Church of Medhane Alem.
3 Among the finest markets anywhere in Ethiopia, the central Gidir Megala
is busy in the afternoons.
4 The Sherif Harari City Museum hosts a superb private collection of Harari
artefacts in the house where Emperor Haile Selassie spent much of his
childhood.
5 The Arthur Rimbaud Museum is
housed in the beautiful fresco-ceilinged house where its namesake
poet-turned-trader is said to have lived in the 19th century.
6 The
domed Awaach of Amir Nur, the 16th-century ruler who constructed the walls
around Harar Jugol, is the most
important of 438 Islamic shrines dotted around the old town.
7. Thought to be the oldest of the city’s
mosques, the modern-looking Al-Jami Mosque was reputedly founded in the 10th
century and includes one minaret dating to the 1760s.
8 Harar’s Catholic Mission was established in 1857 by André Jarosseau, a
French priest who also tutored the future Emperor Haile Selassie.
9 The Harar Community Centre Museum incorporates a replica of a
traditional Harari city house, complete with antique furnishings.
10 As
dusk falls over the city, Harar’s famous Hyena men emerge to feed wild hyenas
at two sites: Aw Ansar Ahmed Shrine outside Argob Bari Gate and the Christian
slaughterhouse outside Assumiy Bari Gate.
11 Laga Oda, a limestone shelter adorned with hundreds of 5,000-year-old
paintings of cattle, people and wild animals, is the most accessible of several
rock art sites near Harar.
12 Known for its precarious balancing of 13 rock formations, the Valley of Marvels 30km east of Harar, is also a
good place to see Hamadryas baboon, gazelle, and dry-country birds. South of
Harar, the 7,000 square kilometre Babile Elephant Sanctuary supports an
estimated 200 elephants in a subspecies unique to the Horn of Africa.
Trip Guide in Harar City: - where to go in Harar and what to do this map guides you through the places of attractions and things to visit in Harar
