Flying overnight from London
hours over featureless desert
rarely broken by strange patterns
...after long hours, the Blue Nile
...reminds one that Ethiopia is nearly a half world away from the Western culture of home.
the land is torn with deep gorges between high plateaus
reminder that the Great Rift Valley was created by ancient collisions between crustal plates
Irregular plots of cultivated fields
give clue to an ancient civilization.
Finally, metal roofs of Addis Ababa
as Ethiopian Air prepares to land
This is the land long ago inhabited by tiny creatures, giant beasts and probably the first humans:
here
Dinkineshor
Lucy
alive 3.5 million years ago
was shorter than today's women.
the actual ancient bones
and reconstructed skeleton
throne of Emperor Haile Selassie
and his church pew in the
Holy Trinity Cathedral. Haile Salassie, 225th monarch, direct descendant of King Solomon & Queen of Sheba, was responsible for modernizing Ethiopia.
Cathedral cloister
Selassie & wife's tombs there
Capital, Addis Ababa has look of a
modern city: high rises & smog,
modern apartments & streets,
but still impoverished suburbs.