- Semien Mountains
The Semien Mountains lie in northern
Ethiopia , north east ofGondar . They are aWorld Heritage Site and include theSemien Mountains National Park . Themountain s consist ofplateau x separated byvalley s and rising topinnacle s. The tallest peak isRas Dashen (4,543 m); other notable heights include Mounts Biuat (4,437 m) and Abba Yared (4,460 m).Notable animals in the mountains include the
Walia Ibex ,Gelada Baboon s and a few Ethiopian wolves.Although the word "Semien" means "north" in Amharic, according to Richard Pankhurst the ancestral form of the word actually meant "south" in Ge'ez, because the mountains lay to the south of
Aksum , which was at the time the center of Ethiopian civilization. But as over the following centuries the center of as Ethiopian civilization itself moved to the south, these mountains came to be thought of as lying to the north, and the meaning of the word likewise changed. [ [http://www.capitalethiopia.com/archive/2008/may/week1/pankurstcorner.htm "Historical Notes on Books: An Early Ethiopian Map"] (Capital newspaper website)]The Semiens are remarkable as being one of the few spots in Africa where
snow regularly falls. First mentioned in the "Monumentum Adulitanum " of the 4th century AD (which described them as "inaccessible mountains covered with snow" and where soldiers walked up to their knees in snow), the presence of snow was undeniably witnessed by the 17th century Jesuit priestJerónimo Lobo . [Donald M. Lockhart (translator), "The" Itinerário "of Jerónimo Lobo" (London: Hakluyt Society, 1984), p. 240.] Although the later travelerJames Bruce claims that he had never witnessed snow in the Semien Mountains, the 19th century explorer Henry Salt not only recorded that he saw snow there (on9 April 1814 ), but explained the reason for Bruce's failure to see snow in these mountains -- Bruce had ventured no further than the foothills into the Semiens. [Henry Salt, "A Voyage to Abyssinia and Travels into the Interior of that Country", 1814 (London: Frank Cass, 1967), p. 352.]Despite their ruggedness and altitude, the mountains are dotted with villages linked by tracks. Historically they were inhabited by Ethiopian Jews (the
Beta Israel ), who after repeated attacks by the zealous Christian Emperors in the 15th century withdrew from the province ofDembiya into the more defensible Semien mountains.Fact|date=May 2008References
External links
* [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17987 Semien Mountains] at
NASA Earth Observatory
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