(“A-ddis AH-ba-ba”) Usually referred to as Addis, this is Ethiopia’s capital city, whose name means “new flower” in the national language Amharic. Nearly over a century old, Addis is the unchallenged diplomatic capital of Africa, with more than seventy embassies and consular representatives clustered in this mountain location. The city also holds significant political importance in its role as home to the African Union (AU) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Addis is also by far the most modern, populous and well-equipped city in the country. Addis Ababa offers a huge range of hotels and restaurants for the discerning traveler, ranging from indulgent luxury to those hotels that are well-equipped but still cater to tourists on a budget. (Go to our Hotel Booking  page.) ETHIO-DER Tour and Travel’s offices are based here, and all of ETHIO-DER’s expeditions across Ethiopia begin and end in this historic, lively city.

(“ben-NAH”) This tribe is part of the Hammer-Bashada cultural unit. The Benna reside in the higher grounds east of the Mago National Park, and their population is estimated at around 35,000 people.

They are primarily agriculturalists; however, Benna men also hunt for food, and if they succeed in killing a buffalo—greatly prized among their people—they are adorned with clay and an impressive headdress, and a great celebration follows throughout the village. The language spoken by the Benna is one of the Omotic group tongues.

(“BOO-mi”) Also known as the Nyangatom or the Bume, the Bumi live south of Omo National Park  and occasionally migrate into the lower regions of the park when water or grazing is scarce.

Numbering around 6,000 in population, the Bumi speak one of the eastern Nilotic group languages. They are agro-pastoralists, relying on cattle herding and flood-retreat agriculture (consisting mainly of sorghum harvesting on the Omo and Kibish Rivers). They tend to indulge in honey and frequently smoke out beehives in the Park to get to the honey inside the nests.

The Bumi are known to be great warriors and, quite frequently, active warmongers: they are often at war with the neighboring tribes including the Hammer, the Karo  and the Surma.

(“HAH-mur”) The Hammer people are primarily pastoralists who occupy the land southeast of the Mago National Park  and beyond, stretching into the Murle Controlled Hunting Area. The Hammer territory stretches from the lower Omo region in the west to Chew Bahir in the east, and from near the Kenyan border in the south all the way to the territory of the Benna.

The Hammer people are a large group of agro-pastoralists with a population of over 30,000. The main source of their subsistence is the cultivation of sorghum, millet, vegetables, tobacco, cotton and the herding of cattle, sheep and goat. They also gather wild honey.

The Hammer people are fine potters. Additionally they take part in body-decoration ceremonies wherein they adorn themselves with many beads. Hammer girls are known for their extravagant hairstyles, often adorning their hair with bright copper-colored powders, and for the decorated goatskins that they wear. The most important Hammer ceremony is the spectacular “jumping of the bulls.”

This often death-defying ceremonial practice exists within the Hammer culture. Considered a rite of passage, the jumping of the bulls is a task that a Hammer boy must fulfill in order to pass from childhood to early adulthood.

Several days before the ceremony, initiates pass out invitations in the form of blades of dried grass. The ceremony stretches for three days; the most important day, however, is the final one, on which, late in the afternoon, roughly thirty live bulls are lined up shoulder to shoulder. The naked initiate rushes towards the animals and vaults onto the back of the first bull. He then runs across the bulls’ backs. At the end of the line, he jumps back down onto the ground, turns around, jumps back up and repeats the performance in the other direction. If an initiate falls during this process, it is considered bad luck. Tourists exploring Ethiopia with ETHIO-DER Tour and Travel are often lucky enough to experience one of these thrilling ceremonies.

(“KAH-ro”) These highly endangered tribal peoples live on the eastern bank of the Omo River, with a population of around 1,000. In earlier times these people were once cattle herders but after suffering the loss of their animals due to disease and famine, the people turned to agriculture as a means of survival.

The Karo are closely related to the Hammer  people, with whom they strive to maintain good inter-tribal relations by frequently exchanging goods and cattle. The two tribes speak very similar languages that belong to the Omotic group of dialects. The Karo prepare for celebrations and traditional dances by adorning their bodies with intricate designs in multi-colored chalk paint. They incorporate locally found white chalk, yellow mineral salt, pulverized red iron ore and black charcoal into these designs.

Karo women scarify their torsos to beautify themselves, and to make themselves more appealing to the men of the tribe. Scarification on a Karo man’s chest is often symbolic of his having killed an enemy or a dangerous animal. The scars are made using a small knife or a razor blade.

Made famous by anthropologists, old photos and recent National Geographic magazines, the custom of wearing lip plates is one of the distinct features of the women of the Surma and Mursi tribes in southern Ethiopia.

At an early age, a small incision is made into the girl’s bottom lip, using a small knife, the front teeth of the lower jaw are removed, and a disc of locally-derived baked clay is inserted into the incision. As the girl ages, and the bottom lip stretches with the weight of the plate, the smaller discs are removed and replaced with ever-larger discs, further stretching the lip until it becomes so distended that, as observed in some Surma women, the lip (with the plate removed) can sometimes be pulled right over the head. The discs are removed at mealtimes to allow for eating and drinking.

Various anthropological studies have been made to determine the cultural significance of the lip plates, and while several suggestions have been made, including the idea that the lip plate prevents the entry of evil spirits into the body via the mouth, and the idea that the practice was instituted to mar the appearance and hence put off slave traders looking for unblemished girls. However, the prevalent philosophy is that the size of the lip plate is representative of the wearer’s family’s wealth, and thus is indicative of her bride price; often those girls with particularly large plates bring in bride prices of over fifty head of cattle.

(“MAH-go”) This national reserve occupies the northern end of the small branch of the main Rift Valley, called the Omo. This park is found at a distance of 810 kilometers from Addis, and is best accessed by a route that travels via Arbaminch, Konso and Jinka, with the park headquarters located about 37 kilometers from Jinka. In this park, around the Neare River, there are several good spots for camping.

The Park covers about 2162 square kilometers of land, with the valley floor rising at about 450 meters above sea level at its highest point. In the southern regions of the park, the plain falls gradually away to Lake Chew Bahir. Rising over 2850 meters above the valley floor at the northern end is Mount Mago. The Mago River, which drains the northern highlands, joins the Usno River at the center of the park, and the joined streams become the Neare River that flows down to the Omo River. Before joining the Mago River, the Neare River feeds a forested swamp that is a vital wet area for elephant and buffalo during the dry season. In south the bush becomes very dense with plant heights reaching 6 meters and the canopy providing cover for more than 20% of the region. Along the Mago and Neare Rivers grows a beautiful riverine forest that is quite dense in places, and throughout the valleys on Mount Mago, the western Mursi Hills and the eastern Benna Hills are sporadic patches of thick forest.

The Mago National Park is one of the two last protected areas in Ethiopia, (the Omo National Park  is the other) where the visitors can still see herds of elephant, buffalo and other rare savannah-dwelling mammals that were once so numerous along the Great Rift Valley. The Park is known for its numbers of buffalo, which are estimated at about 2000 head. There is also a small population of elephant, numbering around 200, that lives in the park. Giraffe, waterbuck, bushbuck, Lesser Kudu, Greater Kudu, warthog, bush pig, Gerenuk, Common Duiker, wild dog, hyena, jackal and baboon are all common, and lion, leopard and caracal are also spotted occasionally. Additionally there are many small mammals; altogether the Park is home to around 81 recorded species of mammal. The area is rich in bird life, with 153 species recorded to date including 4 endemic species including the White-winged Cliff Chat, the Black-headed Forest Oriole, the Tuck Billed Raven, and the Walled Ibis.

The Park is currently expanding its limited network of internal driving tracks, many of which are inaccessible during the rainy season in March and April (main rains) and August through September (short rains).

("MAH-riam TSEE-on") Also known as the Church of Saint Mary of Zion, this is Axum's most famous church, whose grounds hosts two separate houses of worship: the modern-looking domed church, built in the 1960s, and the smaller, much older compound within its walls; here tourists can hope to catch a glimpse of the lost Ark of the Covenant, where it is heavily guarded by the holy Guardian of the Ark--according to legend, this church is the supposed final resting place of the famed Biblical item. 

(“NEH-tchi-sahr”) Getting to this national park by car requires 505 kilometers from Addis Ababa  via Arbaminch on an all-weather road. Nechisar is a small park, covering an area of 514 square kilometers.

The Park is located on the rift valley floor between two lakes, and is bounded on the east by the Amaro Hills that rise to a height of 2000 meters. Its northern-most regions are bounded by Lake Abaya, the second largest lake in Ethiopia, which has an area of 1,070 square kilometers. In the south lies Lake Chamo, a small clear water body that covers only 350 square kilometers. In the west of the Park likes the town of Arbaminch, the headquarters of North Omo Zone. There are two rivers in this park, the Sermule and the Kulfo. Various regions of the Park have elevations ranging from 1108 to 1650 meters above sea level.

The Park is home to 84 species of small diurnal and noctural mammals; to date, 333 bird species have been recorded including 3 endemic species, the Thick Billed Raven, Wattled Ibis, and the Mysterious Nechisar Mightier, Carprumulagus salala.

January through March is the hottest period, with maximum daily temperatures reaching 35° C, and the coldest months are November and December, when the highs reach approximately 28° C. During March and May, the rainfall has historically accumulated at about 900 millimeters.

(“OH-mo”) This reserve is in one of the remotest corners of Ethiopia, 870 kilometers southwest of Addis Ababa. Its elevation is an impressive 440 meters above sea level . The Park encloses some 4068 square kilometers on the west of the Omo River.

To travel to this park by car, the route is roughly the same as that towards Mago National Park. From Mago Park you continue west from up the Mursi escarpment, across the Tana steppe (where the Mursi people live) and onto the Omo River. The river is crossed by ferry; following that it is a 32 kilometer drive to the park headquarters on the Mui River. The Maji escarpment lines the western border of the Park; west of the Dirga, the valley floor is cut by the seasonal Kibish River, which marks the western boundary. The Kibish continues in a southeasterly direction to form a natural border between southern Ethiopia and Sudan. In this park there is a spine of volcanic hills—called the Dirga—running down the center of the park, with heights that reach around 500 meters above the valley floor. The southern edge of the Park is marked by the dry Neruz riverbed, which runs eastwards from the Dirga to Omo. East of the Dirga hills are the famous soil and ellboi plains, dotted by attractive hot springs. The northern end of the park is marked by another eastern-flowing river, the Kumar. There is a dense thicket that flanks the Omo River, extending about 15 kilometers from its banks into the Park. The Park headquarters are in the middle of the park on the Mui River, which flows eastwards from its mouth in the Maji highlands down to the Omo River. There are some very attractive camping sites with limited facilities for the visitor to Omo scattered all along the Mui River.

The Omo is home to around 70 mammal species and 318 bird species, one of which is the elusive black-winged lovebird, endemic to Ethiopia. Mammals commonly seen in Omo national park include oryx, hartebeest, gazelle, ostrich, giraffe, lion, hyena, wild dog, cheetah, large numbers of buffalo, dikdik, duikers, warthog, bushpig, brazzas, monkey, civet and smaller animals as well. Sometimes several hundred elephant can be seen in the Park, coming and going from the Sudan.

The main wet season is March to November, and the dry season extends from December to February. August is the peak flood time for the Omo River. Annual rainfall is about 780 millimeters per year and temperatures can reach 39 °C during the dry season.

(“soor-MAH”) Also known as the Suri people, the Surma inhabit the region spanning from the western edges of Omo National Park, over the headwaters of the Kibish River, and into the hills around Maji. The whole nation numbers around 40,000, and their language belongs to the East Sudanic branch of Nilo-Saharan language family. The Surma comprise three sub-groups: the Chai, the Tirma and the Bale. The first two groups live in the lowlands around the Kibish River, and the latter inhabits the hills around Maji, extending to the Akobo River and into the Sudan. These three groups hunt in Omo National Park, dig for alluvial gold and build beehives to attract wild bees.

Surma women, like their Mursi counterparts, wear lip plates made of clay. Surma men are similar to the Mursi in their practice of stick fighting, referred to as “donga.” In preparation for these fierce battles, the men mix chalk and water into a full-body wash that gives them a frightening, ghostly white appearance designed to intimidate opponents. During the fight the men advance, retreat and battle using long staffs. The traditional enemies of the Surma are the Bumi to the south; fights between these neighbors still occur with some frequency.