# Addis Ababa You stand at Meskel Square as the afternoon light softens the angular facades around you. The roar of minibuses mingles with vendors calling across the busy streets. A long road stretches north toward the hills—lined with government buildings, hotels, churches, and the sound of a city that has been reinventing itself for over a century. This is where you begin to understand Addis Ababa: not as a snapshot, but as a living argument between its past and future. ## Walking the spine from Meskel Square to the mountains The road from Meskel Square to Sidist Kilo (6 Kilo) is a walk through the city's layers. On this route, you'll move past the Africa Hall—seat of the UN Economic Commission for Africa and birthplace of the Organization for African Unity—past the Parliament building and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, past the Trinity Orthodox cathedral and the first modern school that Emperor Menelik II built in the 1880s. The National Museum sits along this corridor too. Each neighborhood reveals its purpose: Arat Kilo (4 Kilo) Avenue is marked by a statue commemorating Ethiopia's victory during the Second World War, while Sidist Kilo Avenue bears a memorial to residents killed during Italian occupation. Around Arat Kilo, you can still trace Serategna Sefer, the old residential area of labourers from the city's founding days. Past Sidist Kilo, the road climbs toward open air. Shiro Meda is an open market where traditional craftsmen sell homemade fabrics, pots and handmade craftwork at the foot of the Entoto Mountains. If you continue on foot or take a taxi or bus up the mountain itself—which rises to 3,300 metres—you reach the first churches of Addis Ababa, Saint Mary and Saint Raguel, and a smaller palace of Menelik II. The walk between them, especially on the forest trails and farmlands, gives you rural life and landscape that Menelik II himself would have seen when he decided to build a capital here. From the summit, you can see the city's plan laid out below you—the grid that was once conceived as a royal military camp. ## The past preserved in museums and monuments The Addis Ababa Museum, near Meskel Square in a former palace of Ras Biru Habte-Gabriel, focuses on artefacts and exhibits specific to the city's own story. The Ethnological Museum, housed in the former palace of Emperor Haile Selassie on the Addis Ababa University campus, is far more ambitious: it displays the ethnic groups of Ethiopia through their outfits, instruments, tools and artefacts—you can see the bedroom where an emperor once slept. The National Museum of Ethiopia, between Arat Kilo Avenue and the university, holds the replica of Lucy, the early hominid whose fragments were found in Ethiopia, alongside sculptures, clothing and artwork spanning thousands of years of Ethiopian civilization. The Zoological Natural History Museum on the university campus displays about 1,100 species of African animals in its collection, founded in 1955. The "Red Terror" Martyrs Memorial Museum near Meskel Square, opened in 2010, is a modern and direct memorial to those who lost their lives during the Derg regime—worth a brief, powerful visit. For transport history, the Ethiopian Railway Museum sits in the old French-built railway station (La Gare) on Yima Dernisse Street, where 1930s carriages and locomotives still stand outside. Monuments and memorials dot the city. The Lion of Judah of Menelik, near the former railway station, was erected in 1930, looted by the Italians, and returned from Rome 30 years later. The Tiglachin ("Our Struggle") monument, a massive sculpture from the 1980s, bears a tribute to Ethiopian and Cuban soldiers who died in the 1977-1978 war against Somalia. The Lion of Judah of Haile Selassie stands outside the National Theatre on Gambia Street, commemorating the emperor's silver jubilee in 1955. ## Churches where history and faith meet Holy Trinity Cathedral, off Niger Street in the Arat Kilo area, was built to commemorate Ethiopia's liberation from the Italians. Many victims of Italian occupation are buried within it, and in 2000, Emperor Haile Selassie's body was moved here. The cemetery around the cathedral holds Patriarchs, Prime Ministers, athletes, musicians and the suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst. The cathedral has a small museum, and remember to leave your shoes outside as in all Ethiopian churches. St George's Cathedral, at the north end of Churchill Road near Menelik Square, is an octagonal building erected in 1896 to commemorate Ethiopia's victory over the Italians. Its interior is decorated with paintings and mosaics; entry requires a guide, and the nearby museum displays ceremonial clothes and ancient manuscripts. Medhane Alem Cathedral on Cameroon Street in the Bole subcity is the largest cathedral in Ethiopia and the second largest in Africa. Built in 1890, its plain exterior gives way to a colourful interior, particularly inside the dome. Gola Saint Michael Church in the city centre displays old paintings by Ethiopian artists and a museum of church articles donated by famous figures, including Emperor Haile Selassie. The Roman Catholic Cathedral of Nativity in the Mercato district is a brick church with a square tower, holding masses in Amharic and Ge'ez. Anwar Mosque in the Mercato district is impressive with its arcades and minarets. Bata Maryam Church, also known as the Menelik mausoleum, stands just south of the Menelik palace. ## Markets and neighbourhoods to wander Shiro Meda, the open market at the foot of the Entoto Mountains, is where you find traditional craftsmen selling their work—fabrics, pots, and other handmade pieces—a direct link to artisanal traditions that have operated in Addis Ababa since its founding in 1886. The Mercato district, where you'll find the Anwar Mosque and the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Nativity, remains one of the city's vital commercial and residential areas. The neighborhoods laid out by Emperor Menelik in the 1880s, each originally a sefer (military-style settlement) granted to nobles and their retainers, can still be traced today if you walk attentively. Each sefer mirrored the structure of an imperial army on the march—the arrangement is visible in the street patterns and the older buildings. ## Other sites worth knowing Unity Park, which opened in October 2019, is an expansive site that brings together different aspects of the city's heritage. The Ethiopian National Library, opened by Emperor Haile Selassie in 1944 with his own donated books, remains the national archive of the country's written record. The Addis Ababa University campus itself hosts a former palace and museum, and the university is embedded in a neighborhood where much of the intellectual life of the city takes shape. Start by spending an afternoon walking from Meskel Square northward. Pick a museum that speaks to you, climb the Entoto Mountains if your legs allow it, sit in one of the older neighborhoods and watch the rhythms of daily life. Addis Ababa reveals itself not in a single visit but in the moments between destinations—the conversations on the minibus, the light on the stone buildings, the view of rural life just above the city. The city is worth the time it takes to actually be there.