Addis Ababa travel guide

Top 10 sights in Addis Ababa

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

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   1

   National Museum of Ethiopia

   Ethiopia's national museum, and where the country keeps Lucy — the Australopithecus afarensis skeleton found in the Afar in 1974 and dated to 3.2 million years. What is on display is a cast; the bones themselves are in the vault below.

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2. 

   2© Vob08 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   St. George's Cathedral

   An Ethiopian Orthodox cathedral of 1896, octagonal in plan, built to mark the victory over Italy at Adwa and dedicated to the saint whose icon was carried into that battle. Haile Selassie was crowned in it in 1930, and Zewditu before him.

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3. 

   3© Sailko · CC BY 3.0

   Holy Trinity Cathedral

   The highest-ranking cathedral of the Ethiopian Orthodox church, built to mark the liberation of 1941. Haile Selassie and Empress Menen lie inside; outside are the graves of ministers killed by the Derg, and of the suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst.

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4. 

   4

   Meskel Square

   The great open square where the Orthodox church lights the Demera bonfire each September for Meskel, the finding of the True Cross, from which the square takes its name. Called Revolution Square under the Derg, it remains the city's stage for rallies and festivals.

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5. 

   5

   "Red Terror" Martyrs' Memorial Museum

   A memorial museum opened in 2010 to the victims of the Red Terror, the Derg's campaign of 1977 and 1978 in which tens of thousands were killed. Coffins, skulls and the clothes of the dead are displayed, and the guides are usually survivors or relatives. Entry is free.

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6. 

   6© Sailko · CC BY 3.0

   Yekatit 12 monument

   An obelisk at Sidist Kilo commemorating the massacre of February 1937, when Italian troops and settlers killed thousands of Addis Ababa's residents over three days after an attempt on the viceroy's life.

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7. 

   7© David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada · CC BY 2.0

   Tiglachin Monument

   A monument raised by the Derg in 1984 to Ethiopian and Cuban soldiers of the Ogaden war, built with North Korean help. A red star tops the column and socialist realist reliefs run around its base.

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8. 

   8

   National Palace

   A palace built in 1955 for the silver jubilee of Haile Selassie's coronation and used as the imperial residence until 1974. The Derg took it over, and it has been the official residence of the president of Ethiopia ever since.

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9. 

   9© Ondřej Žváček · CC BY 2.5

   Monument to the Lion of Judah

   A bronze lion of Judah, the emblem of the Ethiopian monarchy, set up by the railway station in 1930 for Haile Selassie's coronation. Italian troops carried it to Rome in 1937; it was returned in 1968.

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10. 

    10© Francisco Anzola · CC BY 3.0

    Grand Anwar Mosque

    The largest mosque in Addis Ababa, standing at the edge of the Mercato, and the centre of a Muslim population that makes up a substantial share of the city. It was built in the early twentieth century and enlarged since.

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1. 

   1© Filippo Jean · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Imperial Palace, Addis Ababa

   The imperial compound begun by Menelik II in 1887 when he founded the city, and the seat of Ethiopian rulers until 1974. Part of it opened to the public as Unity Park in 2019, including the throne hall and the lion enclosure.

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2. 

   2

   Sebastopol

   A vast bronze mortar cast for Tewodros II in the 1860s by European missionaries he had pressed into service, and named after the siege of Sevastopol. It was dragged to his fortress at Magdala by thousands of labourers and failed on firing; the British left it where it lay.

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   3© VBzi · CC BY 2.0

   Guenete Leul Palace

   A palace Haile Selassie built in 1930 and lived in for most of his reign, handed to Addis Ababa University in 1961. His bedroom and bathroom survive inside what is now the Ethnological Museum, which is odd and rather effective.

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4. 

   4© Sakari A. Maaranen · CC BY 3.0

   Addis Ababa Zoo

   Known in Amharic as the lion compound, the zoo grew out of the black-maned Abyssinian lions kept by Emperor Haile Selassie, whose imperial title was the Lion of Judah. The pride was installed on these grounds in the 1940s and its descendants remain the chief draw.

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5. 

   5© Sailko · CC BY 3.0

   Ethnological Museum of Addis Ababa

   A museum inside Haile Selassie's former palace at the university, arranged around the life cycle rather than by ethnic group, and covering some eighty peoples. The emperor's bedroom and his bathroom, with the mirror smashed by soldiers in 1974, are left as they were.

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6. 

   6© Vob08 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Miyazya 27 adebabay

   A major intersection and district in Addis Ababa named for 27 April 1941 in the Ethiopian calendar, the day the emperor re-entered the capital after the Italian occupation. Ministries and the university stand around it.

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7. 

   7© Ji-Elle · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Entoto Mariam church

   A church on Mount Entoto above Addis Ababa, built by Menelik II when he made this ridge his capital in the 1880s, and the place where he was crowned. The eucalyptus he planted to fuel the settlement still covers the hillside.

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8. 

   8© Vob08 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Meyazia 27 monument

   The liberation monument at the centre of the Arat Kilo roundabout, raised for the end of the Italian occupation in 1941 and topped by the lion of Judah.

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   9

   Zoma Contemporary Art Center

   An art centre in Addis Ababa whose galleries are built from mud and straw in the traditional manner, plastered and moulded by hand. The building is itself the argument the institution makes about local materials.

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