Mount Zuqualla
Encyclopedia
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...
. Situated in Ada'a Chukala
Ada'a Chukala
Ada'a Chukala is one of the 180 woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Debub Misraq Shewa Zone located in the Great Rift Valley, Ada'a Chukala is bordered on the south by Dugda Bora, on the west by the Mirab Shewa Zone, on the northwest by Akaki, on the northeast by Gimbichu, and on...
woreda of the Misraq (East) Shewa Zone
Misraq Shewa Zone
Misraq Shewa is one of the 12 Zones of the Ethiopian Region of Oromia. This zone takes its name from the kingdom or former province of Shewa. Misraq Shewa is located in the middle of Oromia, connecting the western regions to the eastern ones...
, it rises from the plain 30 kilometers south of Debre Zeyit
Debre Zeyit
Debre Zeyit is a town of Ethiopia, lying south east of Addis Ababa. Since the late 1990s it has been officially known by the Oromo name, Bishoftu, which was its name until 1955...
. With a height of 2,989 meters, it is known for its crater lake
Crater lake
A crater lake is a lake that forms in a volcanic crater or caldera, such as a maar; less commonly and with lower association to the term a lake may form in an impact crater caused by a meteorite. Sometimes lakes which form inside calderas are called caldera lakes, but often this distinction is not...
, lake Dembel, an elliptical crater lake with a maximum diameter of about one kilometer, but the trail around the crater is about 6 kilometers long. Both the mountain and the lake are considered holy to both Christian
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the predominant Oriental Orthodox Christian church in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Church was administratively part of the Coptic Orthodox Church until 1959, when it was granted its own Patriarch by Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All...
and the once-pagan Oromo
Oromo people
The Oromo are an ethnic group found in Ethiopia, northern Kenya, .and parts of Somalia. With 30 million members, they constitute the single largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and approximately 34.49% of the population according to the 2007 census...
living nearby.
The lake in the crater has an island monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
, said to have been founded by St Gebre Manfas on the site of a hermit
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...
age used by Saint Mercurius
Saint Mercurius
Great-martyr Mercurius was a Christian saint and martyr. Born Philopater in the city of Eskentos in Cappadocia, Eastern Asia Minor, his original name means "lover of the Father"...
. This monastery was destroyed, and a church at the foot of the mountain looted, by Imam Ahmad Gragn in 1531; two churches were later built at the monastery, one dedicated to St Gebre Menfas built by Menelik II in 1880 and designed by the Italian Sebastian Castagna, and the other dedicated to Kidane Mihret built during the reign of Haile Selassie. Various other holy sites are found around the mountain, mostly rock formation
Rock formation
This is a list of rock formations that include isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrops. These formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock...
s, while the monastery is the site of a biannual festival
Festival
A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....
.
The explorers Orazio Antinori
Orazio Antinori
Orazio Antinori was an Italian explorer and zoologist.Antinori was born in Perugia and studied natural history in Perugia and Rome. Afterwards he collaborated with Charles Lucien Bonaparte and illustrated Iconografia della Fauna Italica. From the middle of the 1840s he became interested in...
, Antonelli and Antonio Cecchi used Zuqualla to determine various geographical locations in May 1881. Dr Scott, on behalf of Cambridge University and the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, secured a large and valuable entomological collection near Zuqualla in 1926. Three of the leaders of the attempted 1960 Ethiopian coup
1960 Ethiopian coup
The 1960 Ethiopian coup was the coup d'etat staged in Ethiopia on 13 December 1960 to overthrow Emperor Haile Selassie. While he was away on a state visit to Brazil, four conspirators, led by Germame Neway and his older brother Brigadier General Mengistu Neway, who was commander of the Kebur...
fled to Zuqualla from the capital, where the Moja family had land. Two of them lost their lives 24 December while Mengistu Neway
Mengistu Neway
Brigadier-General Mengistu Neway was the commander of the Ethiopian Imperial Bodyguard during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie...
, seriously wounded, was captured and brought to the capital for trial.