Addis Ababa (Amharic: አዲስ አበባ, lit. 'new flower', Oromo: Finfinnee, lit. 'fountain of hot mineral water') is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia.
Skyline of Addis Ababa's Meskel Square
With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the eleventh-largest in Africa. The city is surrounded by the Special Zone of Oromia and is populated by people from different regions of Ethiopia. It is home to Addis Ababa University.
Historical Overview
The founding history of Addis Ababa dates back to the late 19th century by Menelik II, Negus of Shewa, in 1886 after finding Mount Entoto unpleasant two years prior. At the time, the city was a resort town; its large mineral spring abundance attracted nobilities of the empire and led them to establish permanent settlement. It also attracted many members of the working classes - including artisans and merchants - and foreign visitors.
Mount Entoto, a high tableland to the north of current Addis Ababa, is one of a handful of sites put forward as a possible location for a medieval imperial capital known as Barara. This permanent fortified city was established during the early to mid-15th century and it served as the main residence of several successive emperors up to the early 16th-century reign of Libne Dengel.
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In 1886, settlement began in the valley south of the mountain in a place called Finfinne, a name which refers to the presence of hot springs. The site was chosen by Empress Taytu Betul. Initially, she built a house for herself near the "Filwuha" hot mineral springs, where she and members of the Shewan Royal Court liked to take mineral baths. Empress Taytu persuaded Emperor Menelik II to move the capital from cold and windy Entoto to the plains below and named the new city Addis Ababa.
By the next year large plots of land (Amharic: ሰፈር , sefer) had been allocated to the major nobility, other important personages and some churches. The local Oromo tribes had their lands confiscated and many were displaced. The city was originally founded as a katama (royal camp), with the sefer laid out mirroring an army on the march.
Among those ethnic groups, the Amhara, the Oromo, the Gurage, the Dorze and the Tigrayans would come in the largest numbers. The town grew by leaps and bounds. Early residential dwelling was typically made of circular huts; walls were constructed with mud (Amharic: ጭቃ, cheka) and straw plastered on a wooden frame and thatched roofs.
Early Urbanization and Growth
Addis Ababa's growth rate began with early rapid urbanization without preplanned intention. This was the time where nobilities embarked on concentrated permanent settlement, and altered by social patterns; i.e. each neighborhoods (sefer) was located on higher grounds, noncontiguous from adjacent settlements. The early social milieu contributed the contemporary admixture of a classic neighborhood. Moreover, the city held strong social organization patterns prior to the Italian invasion.
According to Richard Pankhurst (1968), the city's accelerated population growth was due to factors of provisional governors and their troops, the 1892 famine, and eventually the Battle of Adwa. Gebrehiwot Baykedagn took major administrative division post, and Addis Ababa-Djibouti railways in 1916, which also connects Addis Ababa with French Somaliland port of Djibouti.
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Ras Tafari Mekonnen, later became Emperor Haile Selassie I was the most powerful figure in the city following his appointment in 1917. He transformed the city by recognizing the importance of modernization and urbanization, and he distributed wealth to support emerging class.
By 1926 and 1927, a large-scale economic revolution occurred, a surplus of coffee production began growing as a result of capital accumulation. Profiting from this wealth, the bourgeoisie benefited the city by constructing new, stone-fitted houses with imported European furniture and an importation of the latest automobiles, and expansion of banks across the locales.
The first popular road transportation opened between Addis Ababa and Djibouti, about 156 km (97 mi) northward in the direction of Dessie. Initially intended to connect Italian occupied Assab with Addis Ababa in the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1928, the road was considered for motor vehicle travel. In 1930, the Emperor was crowned and proceeded with new technologies and building infrastructure.
Marketplace in Addis Ababa (c. 1935)
Italian Occupation and Urban Planning
Following all the major engagements of their invasion, the Italian troops from the colony of Eritrea entered Addis Ababa on 5 May 1936. After the occupation, the city served as the Duke of Aosta's capital for unified Italian East Africa until 1941, when it was abandoned in favor of Amba Alagi and other redoubts during the Second World War's East African Campaign.
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The Italian ambition regarding Addis Ababa was to create a beautified colonial capital city along with a new master plan launched by seven architects such as Marcello Piacentini, Alessandro Bianchi, Enrico Del Debbio, Giuseppe Vaccaro, Le Corbusier, Ignazio Guidi and Cesare Valle. Despite contradictory and different ideas for each other, the plan was intended to focus on the general architectural plan of the city.
Two preparations were approved from the master plan: the Le Corbusier and Guidi and Valle. During an invitation to Mussolini, the French Swiss architect Le Corbusier illustrated the master plan in a guideline sketch involving a traversing route monumental structure by a grand boulevard across the city from north to south, as he extracted from his 1930-1933 Radiant City concept.
In the aftermath, Addis Ababa suffered from economic stagnation and rapid population growth, the inner-city affected by urban morphology initiated by Italian occupation and the peripheral area were in urban sprawl.
Post-Occupation Development
In 1946, Haile Selassie invited famous British master planner Sir Patrick Abercrombie with goals of modelling and beautifying the city to become the capital for Africa. His careful master plan of a major traffic route was completed by segregating neighborhood units, as he extracted from his 1943 London traffic problem.
In 1959, the British consultant team named Bolton Hennessy and Partners commissioned an improvement of Abercrombie's 1954-1956 satellite towns. In 1965, the French Mission for Urban Studies and Habitat led by Luis De Marien launched another master plan responsible to create monumental axis through Addis Ababa City Hall with an extension across Gofa Mazoria in the southern part of the city.
Haile Selassie also helped to form the Organisation of African Unity in 1963, which was later dissolved in 2002 and replaced by the African Union (AU), which is also headquartered in the city, airports and industrial parks. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa founded in 1958, also has its headquarters in Addis Ababa. Addis Ababa was also the site of the Council of the Oriental Orthodox Churches in 1965.
After the Derg came to power, roughly two-third of housing stock transferred to rental housing. The population growth declined from 6.5% to 3.7%. In 1975, the Derg nationalized "extra" rental structures built by private stockholders. Hungarian architect C.K. Polonyi was the first person to embark the city's master plan during the Derg period with assistance of the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing.
In 1986, the Italo-Ethiopian master plan was set up by 45 Ethiopian professional along with 75 Italian experts with 207 sectorial reports documented as references. The plan dealt with a balanced urban system and services in urban area such as water supply. Akaki incorporated to Addis Ababa to supply industrial and freight terminal services.
Modern Era
On 28 May 1991, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition party in course of overthrowing the Derg, seized Addis Ababa. A new constitution was adapted in 1994 and enacted a year later; while all cities in Ethiopia accountable rule by regional authority, Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa remained chartered cities, with mandates for self-governing and developmental centers.
From the end of 1998, new project was launched by Addis Ababa City Administration naming Office for Revision of Addis Ababa Master Plan (ORAAMP), covering from 1999 to 2003. A controversial plan to expand the boundaries of Addis Ababa, by 1.1 million hectares into the Oromia special zone in April 2014, sparked the Oromo protests on 25 April 2014 against expansion of the boundaries of Addis Ababa. The controversial master plan was cancelled on 12 January 2016.
United Nations Population Projections estimated the population of metro area of Addis Ababa to be 5,228,000 in 2022, a 4.43% increase from 2021. During Abiy Ahmed's premiership, Addis Ababa and its vicinities underwent Beautifying Sheger. This project is aimed to enhance the green coverage and beauty of the city.
In 2018, Abiy initiated a project called "Riverside" planned to expand riverbanks for 56 kilometres (35 mi), from the Entoto Mountains to the Akaki River. In October 2022, the government launched Sheger City, an urban development model that contains 12 sub-cities, 36 districts and 40 rural kebeles with its seat located in Saris area in Addis Ababa. The project objective was to feed other satellite cities into Addis Ababa and contribute economic development within enclave.
Key Features
Addis Ababa is located in the heart of the Oromia state. Our city map of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) shows 197 km of streets and paths. If you wanted to walk them all, assuming you walked four kilometers an hour, eight hours a day, it would take you 6 days.
With a total area of 0.4 square kilometers, public green spaces and parks make up 4.3% of Addis Ababa’s total area, 10 square kilometers. Our map shows more than 26 cafés, restaurants, bars, ice-cream parlors, beer gardens, cinemas, nightclubs and theatres. The city also boasts more than 23 sights and monuments, and far more than 147 retailers.
The city lies a few kilometres west of the East African Rift, which splits Ethiopia into two, between the Nubian plate and the Somali plate.
Points of Interest
Some attractions in the city are the Meskel Festival, the annual religious holiday (in September) includes the burning of a large bonfire. The National Museum of Ethiopia with its display of Ethiopian art, and home to the famous Lucy Mummy.
Map of Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa Bole International Airport (IATA code: ADD) located in the Bole area, 6.5 km (4 mi) by road east of the city center.
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