Show 1 77 I 1 az z A 30 ethiopian warriors in mock cavalry charge Frova red bythe by th National So society cletY washington von D C service C INCE the fall of aduca important SINCE trading center of 0 northern 3 ethiopia to the forces of italy the towns of aasum ila iia aar and Di and the province of ogaden have taken important places in the news owing to the further movements of italian and ethiopian troops perched high in the mountains about feet above the sea and only 12 miles almost due west of aduja ak sum today Is a small town of only about inhabitants but the memory of ancient glories still clings to huge stone atone monuments that stand there akscin was the capital of ethiopia according to ancient records and since time immemorial has been re regarded added as sacred by the people its sacred character has made the city immune to attack or plundering by brigands brigande bri gands or the armies of rival ethiopian chieftains fighting for the surrounding country this Is not the first time that italian armies have held aasum the italians conquered the city and nearby territory in the war which was ended by their disastrous defeat at aduca in 1800 in aasum Is a church which according to legend contains the original ark of the covenant of the hebrews the church has been so closely guarded by the clergy however that no scholars from the western world have been able to confirm or deny the legend tradition says that the ark was brought to ethiopia by menelek 1 I son of king solomon and the queen of sheba Men menelek ellk lk according to the story was educated at jerusalem by solomon until he reached the age of nineteen he then went to ethiopia with the ark and a large delegation of hebrews ark may have been burned the original church in which the ark of the covenant was supposed to have been lodged was burned when the city was sacked by a moslem invader mohammed gran about 1535 but a new one was erected soon after by the portuguese who had visited ethiopia earlier and had established friendly relations there there Is no record of whether the ark was destroyed in this fire or carried to some safe place before the invasion and later restored to the new church native tradition says that akscin dates back many thousands of years I 1 the earliest authoritative mention of it Is in a manuscript written in 07 67 A I 1 D in which it Is described as the capital of the king kingdom dom which was the successor of the ancient land of punt and the forerunner of ethiopia punt Is mentioned in egyptian records as a place with which the egyptians traded for gold old ivory ostrich feathers and other valuable merchandise an inscription in greek on a column at aasum Is evidence that what Is now ethiopia lind had contacts with the ancient grecian world akscin Is well known for its huge stone obelisks some of which are still standing while others have fallen and have been broken thy they form a consecutive series from rough rouga bones to highly finished obelisks of which the tallest standing tit nt least until recently was CO 00 feet in height and 8 feet 7 inches in width they are believed to have been connected with some forni form of ancient semitic sun worship aasum Is thought to have been much larger in ancient times than now for there tire are traces of stone foundations of large buildings over a wide arpa near the present town some of them probably temples and palaces the city of clarar about miles from the red ked sea and 35 miles south of the railroad from addis ababa to djibouti was originally settled by arabs who migrated front from yemen on the eastern shore of the red sea harar a walled city A survivor of the middle ages of europe would feel at home in harar for foi it ling has ion been the custom to close the live gates in its high stone wall at nightfall none may leave or enter the city until the following morning lust just as was the former practice in european walled cities the wall about three miles in circumference la is guarded by 24 towers reports from harar say that the io a vernor of the city has torn breaches n the malls vi alls to make it possible for or the inhabitants to lee flee without congestion nt at the narrow gates g ites in case of 0 raids by italian bombing planes the streets of clarar are mile little more than narrow alleys some of them anly three or four feet wide steep and ill paved and cluttered with refuse they wind between one and two story buildings built of undressed stone and mud with thatched roofs along the streets are many small shops some a few steps below the street level in which work blacksmiths silversmiths sword maiers and other artisans harar lost some of its former forme r commercial importance to DIre dawa 35 3 miles to the north when the addla addis ababa djibouti railroad was built it still remains an important center for caravan trade however doing a brisk business in coffee kat a pa plant 1 at producing a drug much used by the mo 1110 hamm edans cattle mules camels hides ivory and gums about people according to the most recent estimate normally live in and around clarar and the city contains the palace of the governor and several foreign consulates which are of more substantial construction than the huts of the common folk there are both christian ethiopian churches and moslem mosques and two hospitals within the walls harar and its province stand on a plateau between and feet above the sea which has a pleasing climate and Is extremely fertile harar province Is famous for its coffee much of which Is exported a portion of the tha crop coming to the united stites states where it Is preferred by many discriminating coffee drinkers coffee grows wild in some parts of clarar province tor for ethiopia was the original home of coffee arabs founded harar the history of harar goes back bach to the seventh century A D when the immigrant arabs from yemen arrived and founded the city according to tradition the state which was then organized was known as adel or zalla of tills this state clarar was the capital in the fifteenth century during that century a ruler of clarar mohammed gran the be left handed invaded what was then ethiopia and conquered a large part of it no white man visited harar so far as Is known until 1854 when an englishman sir richard burton spent ten days there disguised as an arab in the region was occupied by an egyptian army and held for ten years until troubles in the sudan forced the withdrawal of the garrison the province then was under british influence until 1887 when it was conquered by menelek 11 II who later became emperor of ethiopia and who conquered the italians at aduca in IWO DIre dawa 35 33 miles to the north of harar can be reached in abne one sayi days journey on mule back or in four hours by automobile over the rough terrain this city in many ways the most progressive gres sive in ethiopia la Is a key point on the railroad which Is ethiopians only outlet to the sea formerly DIre dawa was the terminus of the railroad from djibouti it Is about miles from the coast and stands on the fringe of the ethiopian plateau about feet above sea level the modern well built railroad station tit at DIre dawa Is much like that in any small american town and the city contains the ethiopian customs house and the residences of several european employees of the railroad ogaden province ogaden pro province provina vinc Is in Ethl ethiopians oplaS southeastern corner jutting out into an angle formed by british Somal Soma lland liland on the north and italian Soma liland on the thel south and east on the southwest it extends to the webbe arher Sh one of etalo plas pias two queer streams which flow hundreds of miles toward the sea only to disappear into the earth a few miles from their goal this strange river tumbles down from ethiopians high central mountains al most reaches the sea near on the indian ocean then changes its mind and runs miles along the th coast only 12 to 15 miles inland finally losing itself in the italian sow som altland plains a few miles from the equator anether of ethiopians disappearing rivers the awash flows out of the mountains near addis ababa northeastward but loses itself about GO CO or 70 miles inland from djibouti the chief port of french Somal Soma lland liland on the gulf of aden |