{"id":282487,"date":"2019-07-24T10:29:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T14:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiYGh0dHA6Ly93d3cudHJhdmVsd2Vla2x5LmNvLnVrL2FydGljbGVzLzMzODUwNi9leHBsb3JpbmctZXRoaW9waWFzLXdpbGRsaWZlLWFuZC1hbmNpZW50LW1vbnVtZW50c9IBAA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-10-14T13:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T17:07:15","slug":"ethiopia-wildlife-ancient-monuments-travel-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/282487","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia’s wildlife and ancient monuments: a reference guide for travellers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia offers wildlife found nowhere else on earth and ancient monuments without the crowds of better-known destinations, Travel Weekly UK told British travel sellers in July 2019.<\/p>\n

\"Gelada<\/figure>\n

Gelada baboons in Ethiopia's Simien Mountains (Rod Waddington \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/em><\/p>\n

The trade magazine's pitch rested on two strengths that remain true today: endemic highland wildlife and a cluster of UNESCO World Heritage sites in the north of the country.<\/p>\n

The Simien Mountains National Park, inscribed by UNESCO in 1978, is the best-known wildlife destination. Its jagged escarpments are home to large troops of gelada, a grass-eating primate found only in the Ethiopian highlands, as well as the Walia ibex, a wild goat that lives nowhere else, and the Ethiopian wolf.<\/p>\n

Further south, the Bale Mountains hold the largest surviving population of the Ethiopian wolf, Africa's most endangered carnivore, along with the mountain nyala and many endemic birds.<\/p>\n

The historic circuit covers Lalibela, where churches were carved out of solid rock in the 12th and 13th centuries; Aksum, with the giant stone stelae of an ancient kingdom; Gondar, the 17th-century royal city of castles; and the island monasteries of Lake Tana near Bahir Dar.<\/p>\n

Visitors should check current travel advisories before planning trips to the north, where conflict has affected access to several of these sites since 2020.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong> Travel Weekly UK<\/a>, UNESCO: Simien National Park<\/a>, UNESCO: Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela<\/a>, UNESCO: Aksum<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia offers wildlife found nowhere else on earth and ancient monuments without the crowds of better-known destinations, Travel Weekly UK told British travel sellers in July 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":837760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/gelada-baboons-simien-mountains.jpg?fit=848%2C569&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1buf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282487"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837768,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282487\/revisions\/837768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}