Adigrat is a city in the Tigray Region

Tigray Region

Tigray Region is the northernmost of the nine ethnic regions of Ethiopia containing the homeland of the Tigray people. It was formerly known as Region 1...

 (or kilil) of Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. Located in the Misraqawi Zone

Misraqawi Zone

Misraqawi is a Zone in the Ethiopian Region of Tigray. Misraqawi is bordered on the east by the Afar Region, on the south by Debubawi , on the west by Mehakelegnaw and on the north by Eritrea. Its highest point is Mount Asimba...

 at longitude and latitude 14°16′N 39°27′E with an elevation of 2457 meters above sea level, below a high ridge to the west, Adigrat is the last important Ethiopian city south of the border with Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...

, and is considered to be a strategically important gateway to Eritrea and the Red Sea

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...

. It is also the administrative center of Ganta Afeshum

Ganta Afeshum

Ganta Afeshum is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Misraqawi Zone, Ganta Afeshum is bordered on the south by Hawzen, on the west by the Mehakelegnaw Zone, on the north by Gulomahda, and on the east by Saesi Tsaedaemba...

 woreda

Woreda

Woreda is an administrative division of Ethiopia , equivalent to a district . Woredas are composed of a number of Kebele, or neighborhood associations, which are the smallest unit of local government in Ethiopia...

.

The largest pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Ethiopia, Addis Pharmaceuticals Factory SC, is located in Adigrat. Opened in 1992, the plant has an annual production capacity of 1.2 billion tables, 19 billion ampoules, 10 million vials, 500,000 capsules, 4 million ointment tubes and 9.6 million bottles of syrup. Addis Pharmaceuticals is one of the 13 companies owned and managed by the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT).

Sites of Interest

Adigrat, the capital of the Agame

Agame

The Agame is a former province in northern Ethiopia, now part of the Tigray Region. Its inhabitants include the Irob people, a region where tradition states the legendary Makeda was born and raised...

 district, has an interesting aristocratic

Aristocracy

Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...

 history. In town are the remnants of two castles from the Zemene Mesafint

Zemene Mesafint

The Zemene Mesafint was a period in Ethiopian history when the country was rent by conflicts between warlords, the Emperor was reduced to little more than a figurehead confined to the capital city of...

 ("Era of Princes"), one (pictured) owned by Dej Desta, the other by the Ras Sebhat Aregawi. Other sites of interest:

• 19th century Adigrat Chirkos - was strategically built on a hill near Dej Desta's castle, so that Desta could see the church from his bedroom balcony.
• A few years after World War II land was obtained in the centre of Adigrat at a site called "Welwalo". In view of the possibility that one day it might become a cathedral a church, the "Holy Saviour" was built and used regularly as a parish church. After the establishment of the Ethiopian Catholic hierarchy in 1961 that church was destined to become the cathedral of the Eparchy of Adigrat. After appropriate modifications were made the formal and official consecration of the Cathedral Catholic
  Catholic
  The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
  
  of the Holy Saviour took place on 19th April 1969. It has an Italian design, but incorporates work by Ethiopian artist Afewerk Tekle
  Afewerk Tekle
  Afewerk Tekle is one of Ethiopia's most celebrated artists, particularly known for his paintings on African and Christian themes as well as his stained glass....
  
  .
• Italian War cemetery commemorates some 765 Italian soldiers who died between 1935 and 1938.
• Adigrat also hosts a market, and a newly constructed community park.

History

Adrigrat first acquired importance when Ras Sabagadis

Sabagadis

Sabagadis was a Dejazmach or governor of Tigray, a province in northern Ethiopia. He was the son of Shum Waldu of Agame, and a member of the Irob people.- Life :...

 made it his capital in 1818; it declined in importance after his death in 1831, although the missionary Samuel Gobat

Samuel Gobat

Samuel Gobat , was a Swiss Lutheran who became an Anglican missionary in Africa and was the Protestant Bishop of Jerusalem from 1846 until his death....

 had joined countless Ethiopians in fleeing there for safety in the days immediately after Sabagadis' death. When the missionary Johann Ludwig Krapf

Johann Ludwig Krapf

Johann Ludwig Krapf was a German missionary in East Africa, as well as an explorer, linguist, and traveler. Krapf played an important role in exploring East Africa with Johannes Rebmann. They were the first Europeans to see Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro...

 passed through Adigrat in April 1842, "almost the whole is in ruins", and observed that a nearby village, Kersaber, was "much larger than Adigrate." According to Sven Rubenson, 1868, Ras Kassai (later the Emperor Yohannes IV

Yohannes IV of Ethiopia

Yohannes IV , born Lij Kassay Mercha Ge'ez, was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1872 until his death.-Early life:...

), met with Sir Robert Napier

Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala

Field Marshal Robert Cornelis Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala, GCB, GCSI, CIE, FRS was a British soldier.-Early life:...

 at Adigrat, where he agreed to provide support for the British expeditionary force

1868 Expedition to Abyssinia

The British 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia was a punitive expedition carried out by armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire...

.

During the First Italian-Abyssinian War, the Italians occupied Adigrat on 25 March 1895, and used it as a base to support their advance south to Mek'ele

Mek'ele

Mek'ele , also transliterated as Makale, is a city in northern Ethiopia and the capital of the Tigray Region. It is located some 650 kilometers north of the capital, Addis Ababa, at latitude and longitude with an elevation of 2084 meters above sea level...

. General Antonio Baldissera refortified the settlement after the Italian defeat at the Battle of Adowa

Battle of Adowa

The Battle of Adwa was fought on 1 March 1896 between Ethiopia and Italy near the town of Adwa, Ethiopia, in Tigray...

, but Emperor Menelik II insisted on its surrender at the beginning of the peace talks that concluded the war; Baldissera was ordered to evacuate Adigrat, which he did 18 May 1896. Augustus B. Wylde a few years later described Adigrat as having a Saturday market of medium size.

The Italians again occupied Adigrat, without resistance, at the beginning of the Second Italian-Abyssinian War 7 October 1935. The Italians were met there on the 11th by Ras Haile Selassie Gugsa

Haile Selassie Gugsa

Haile Selassie Gugsa was an army commander and a member of the Royal family of the Ethiopian Empire.- Biography :Haile Selassie Gugsa was the son of Leul Ras Gugsa Araya Selassie...

, who had been courted by the Italians to ignite a widespread defection of the Tigrean aristocracy; instead, he had been soundly defeated a few days before by Dejazmach Haile Kebbede of Wag

Wag

Wag is a traditional highland district in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, in the approximate location of the modern Wag Hemra Zone. Weld Blundell described the district as bounded on the south by the mountains of Lasta, on the east and north by the Tellare River, and the west by the Tekezé...

, and presented himself to the invaders with only 1200 followers. Anthony Mockler notes that despite the fact the young Ras shook Ethiopian morale, "this was the first and last open defection to the Italians of an important noble and his men."

Adigrat was captured by rebels in the Woyane rebellion 25 September 1943, forcing the Ethiopian government administrators to flee to neighboring Eritrea. By 1958 the city was one of 27 places in Ethiopia ranked as a First Class Township.

By the 1970s, Adigrat possessed the only high school east of Adwa and north of Mek'ele, Agazi Comprehensive High School, and together with the town's Catholic junior high school, they became centers of anti-government dissent. The presence outside of town of a large military base, served as a focus for protesting students, and also as a source for their hopes of a military coup. During the first years of the Ethiopian Civil War

Ethiopian Civil War

The Ethiopian Civil War began on September 12, 1974 when the Marxist Derg staged a coup d'état against Emperor Haile Selassie, and lasted until the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front , a coalition of rebel groups, overthrew the government in 1991. The war overlapped other Cold War...

, the fledgling Tigrayan People's Liberation Front

Tigrayan People's Liberation Front

The Tigrayan People's Liberation Front , known more commonly and sometimes pejoratively in Ethiopia as Woyane or Weyane is a political party in Ethiopia...

 drew support from these groups. Derg

Derg

The Derg or Dergue was a Communist military junta that came to power in Ethiopia following the ousting of Haile Selassie I. Derg, which means "committee" or "council" in Ge'ez, is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a committee of...

 forces took Adigrat during their Operation Adwa in summer 1988. The same day that the Third Revolutionary Army was crushed at Battle of Shire, 19 February 1989, government troops and officials evacuated Adigrat. According to Africa Watch they caused widespread destruction in the town before they left.

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency

Central Statistical Agency (Ethiopia)

The Central Statistical Agency is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth, as well as to act as an official training center in that field. It is part of the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and...

in 2005, Adigrat has an estimated total population of 65,237 of whom 32,586 are men and 32,651 are women; another published estimate offers a population of 84,769 people for Adrigrat. The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 37,417 of whom 17,352 were men and 20,065 were women.

External links

• John Graham, "Tigray - Axum and Adua - Part 1" (Addis Tribune)