Christmas Eve and a three hour drive north to Gonder, capital of Emperor Fasilidas' 17th century kingdom (or should that be empire). It reminded me of Luxor in Egypt where successive pharoahs attempted to out-build each other with increasingly impressive temples in a rather strung-out 'Egypt Has Talent'. Here, Fasilidas and his successors built a series of castles all within shouting distance of each other, presumably with the same ego-minded purpose. The end result is an extraordinary cluster of rather European-looking buildings. But Gonder is not just about castles. It also possesses one remarkable church - Debre Birhan Selassie, whose decorated ceiling is reckoned to be the most famous piece of ecclesiastical art in the whole of Ethiopia. Can't argue with that.
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| On route from Bahir Dar to Gonder |
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| One of Gonder's castles |
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| Fasilidas's bath. This must be the only example of a house built in the bath (as opposed to the traditional bath in the house.) |
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| Tree roots growing over the walls of the baths reminiscent of Cambodia's Angkor Wat. |
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| The painted ceiling in Gonder's Debre Birhan Selassie church. 80 cherubic faces stare down at you whilst every available space on the walls is filled with scenes from the life of Christ and other lesser-well-known events (the devil leading the prophet Mohammed!) |
