Harar

Islam's Fourth Holy City

Harar, a name whose origins trace back to the Harari word "Hareri," meaning "city" or "town," sits on a plateau in eastern Ethiopia, surrounded by deep gorges and savannah . More than a historic city, it is Islam's "fourth holiest city," where 82 mosques, 102 shrines, and the ancient Jugol Wall built between the 13th and 16th centuries enclose a living cultural landscape.

Jugol Wall

The Jugol Wall is the historic fortification surrounding the old city of Harar, constructed between the 13th and 16th centuries . The wall stands 4 to 5 meters high and extends 3.5 kilometers, originally featuring five historic gates, namely, Shoa, Buda, Sanga, Erer, and Fallana, with a sixth gate added in 1889 . Built as a defensive barrier, the wall encloses the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Harar Jugol, often called Islam's "fourth holy city," home to 82 mosques and over 100 shrines

Sherif Harari City Museum

The Sherif Harar City Museum is a private museum located within the historic Jugol walled city of Harar, established in 1998 by collector Abdullah Ali Sherif . Housed in a traditional two-story Harari-style residence, the museum showcases a diverse collection of Islamic and Ottoman-era artifacts including ancient Harari and Arabic manuscripts, Qur'ans, coins, swords, traditional costumes, agricultural tools, and World War II relics . A notable feature is the large tortoise residing in the courtyard, cared for by the founder himself . The museum also operates a bookbinding workshop preserving traditional techniques

Arthur Rimbaud Museum

The Maison Rimbaud (Rimbaud's House) is a museum in Harar, occupying a beautifully restored 19th-century Indian merchant mansion near the center of the UNESCO-listed old city . The building serves as a memorial to Arthur Rimbaud, who lived and worked in Harar from 1880 to 1891 as a coffee trader and arms dealer after renouncing poetry at age twenty-one . Its interior displays historic photographs of Harar, some taken by Rimbaud with a camera he had shipped from France, alongside excerpts from his letters and books documenting expeditions in the Horn of Africa . The upper floor offers panoramic views over the city's rooftops

Nearby Attractions of Harar

Ethio-Djibouti Railway Station

The Ethio-Djibouti Railway Station in Dire Dawa is a historic French-built station established in 1902, which led to the founding of the modern city of Dire Dawa . The station grounds now house the Chemin de Fer Railway Museum, an open-air collection of decommissioned locomotives and carriages slowly decaying in the sun, including 1950s passenger cars and an Italian engine from the 1940s . An elderly former railway employee serves as curator, guiding visitors through the "train graveyard" where French signs still hang in the workshops

Porc-Epic Cave

Porc-Epic Cave is a Middle Stone Age archaeological site located approximately three kilometers south of Dire Dawa in eastern Ethiopia, nestled in a limestone cliff overlooking the Laga Dächatu valley . First discovered in 1929, the cave is renowned for yielding tens of thousands of stone tools and one of the largest collections of processed ochre in East Africa, weighing nearly 40 kilograms . Evidence suggests the site functioned as a specialized ochre-processing workshop for over 4,500 years, producing pigment for symbolic activities such as body painting

Babile Camel Market

Babile Camel Market is a prominent livestock market in the town of Babile. Operating primarily on Mondays, the market features hundreds of camels brought by pastoralist communities for trade, alongside cattle and goat sections . Transactions employ a traditional silent negotiation system where buyers and sellers use finger creases beneath cloth to agree on prices without verbal communication . The market is accessible via public bus from Harar .

Google Sites

Report abuse