{"id":9543,"date":"2019-02-12T14:40:41","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T14:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/AFRICAtime\/?p=9543"},"modified":"2020-07-07T12:00:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T11:00:37","slug":"5-reasons-to-visit-ethiopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/5-reasons-to-visit-ethiopia\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Reasons to visit Ethiopia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Ethiopia is Africa&#8217;s oldest independent country and\u00a0is shaped by its regal past and over a 1,000 years of Christianity. As a result it has a vast variety of amazing architectural sites to see, ranging from the medieval site at Lalibela, the baroque-style royal residences at Gondor, and the cultural terraces of the Konso highlands. It is such a diverse country, packed full of so much history, culture and wildlife, and is a very up-and-coming destination. Here are 5 reasons to add Ethiopia to your travel radar.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Great connectivity<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>With Ethiopian Airlines flying to amazing destinations via Addis Ababa, it means that you can easily combine a cultural visit in Ethiopia with other fantastic destinations, such as Kenya, and add on a safari or beach break to your trip.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">The landscape<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_9563\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9563\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-9563 size-full\" title=\"Blue Nile Falls\" src=\"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3572.jpg\" alt=\"Blue Nile Falls\" width=\"700\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3572.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3572-600x300.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9563\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue Nile Falls<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Ethiopia is blessed with incredible and contrasting landscapes such as the Simien Mountains, Danakil Depressions and the Blue Nile Falls, which are breathtaking.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">The wildlife<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_9562\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9562\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-9562 size-full\" title=\"Ethiopian Wolf\" src=\"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3571.jpg\" alt=\"Ethiopian Wolf\" width=\"700\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3571.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3571-600x300.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9562\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ethiopian Wolf<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Ethiopia is home to some rare species of birds and animals such as the Mountain Nyala, Gelada baboon, the Walia Ibex, the mountain horned goats, and the Ethiopian wolf, which are all unique to Ethiopia, making sightings very exciting for wildlife enthusiasts.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Historical sites<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_9564\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9564\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-9564 size-full\" title=\"Lalibela\" src=\"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3574.jpg\" alt=\"Lalibela, Ethiopia\" width=\"700\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3574.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3574-600x300.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9564\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lalibela<\/p><\/div>\n<p>There are so many amazing historical sites to see in Ethiopia, such as the 12th and 13th century rock-cut churches of Lalibela, the 17th century Castle of Fasilides and the Castle, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Coffee and Cuisine<\/h3>\n<p>Ethiopia is well known for its coffee and it was actually where coffee was first discovered in the 9th century! Alongside this world-famous brew, Ethiopia is also known for its food and especially injera, which is a large, spongy, pancake-like bread, on which portions of spicy meat and vegetables are served. Delicious and a must try!<\/p>\n<p>Find out more<a href=\"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/ethiopia\"><strong>\u00a0https:\/\/www.somak.com\/ethiopia<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Suggested Itineraries<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/ethiopia\/suggested-itineraries\/classic_ethiopia\"><strong>Classic Ethiopia<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/ethiopia\/suggested-itineraries\/history,_mountains_&amp;_wildlife\"><strong>History, Mountains and Wildlife<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/ethiopia\/suggested-itineraries\/northern_adventure\"><strong>Northern Adventure<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Inspired to visit Ethiopia for a unique experience?<\/p>\n<p>Call us on 020 8423 3000 or complete an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/booking-enquiry\">enquiry form<\/a>\u00a0to receive a quotation from our booking experts.<\/p>\n<p>You can also find out more on our website:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/\">https:\/\/www.somak.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":9561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[440,421,1,580],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-ethiopia","category-uncategorized","category-wildlife-and-safari"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_3181.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9543"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10890,"href":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9543\/revisions\/10890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somak.com\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}