Beauty Garden
The garden city of Addis Ababa, with its trees, flowers and parks, is one of the most beautiful in Africa. Capital of Ethiopia and the third highest capital in the world, it has a climate that offers invigorating mountain coolness, pleasantly warmed by its proximity to the equator. The founder Emperor Menelik' II, called it the ‘New Flower’ when he established it in 1887. The 2.500m high, political and commercial nucleus of the country sprawls across many hills, beneath Mount Entoto and offers welcoming hospitality and a scene of contrasts with modern buildings and wide boulevards side-by-side with historical churches, palaces, museums, monuments, a myriad of shops, coffee houses and simple huts. Addis Ababa’s great market is one of the largest in Africa where everything from a hairpin to a truckload of grain can be purchased. Addis is now host to many international and regional organizations such as the Africa Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa at Africa Hall. It can also boast a state-of-the-art airport which serves as the doorway into a country that has the longest history of freedom in Africa, and to the paradise that is Ethiopia.
