Best Ethiopia tour safari is a 14 days African safari tour in Ethiopia. This 14 day Ethiopian safari tour takes you both to north and south of the country. Be sure to have the best of cultural and historical insights in this Best Ethiopia tour safari.

The Best Ethiopia tour safari is the ultimate comprehensive safari in Ethiopia. You will cover the north by flight. The south will be covered by road when on the best Ethiopia tour safari. This Ethiopia safari is for those who want to experience the best of Ethiopia.

This Best Ethiopia tour safari combines the highlights of Northern- and Southern Ethiopia. The Ethiopia tour is ideal for those who wish to combine two completely different parts of the country.

On this Best Ethiopia tour safari, you will have in one intense, yet comfortable Ethiopia safari trip. You will not only have a surprise but you’ll get fascinated by this diverse Best Ethiopia tour safari.

Best Ethiopia Tour Safari Destinations

Bahir Dar

Best Ethiopia tour safari starts from Addis ababa to Bahir Dar. This is the capital city of the Amhara region in northern Ethiopia. It’s a port on the south shore of the huge inland Lake Tana. Dek Island is one of many islands in the lake that are home to medieval monasteries.

On the Zege Peninsula, the Ura Kidane Mihret monastery is known for its elaborate, colorful murals. The Blue Nile River snakes southeast of the city toward the towering cliffs at the Blue Nile Falls.

The Best Ethiopia tour safari to Bahir Dar takes you 500 meters above and 600 kilometres north of Addis Ababa. It provides the setting and starting point for the majority of northern Ethiopian tours.

It is situated on the edge of the beautiful Lake Tana, and surrounded by cool mountain air. Bahir Dar is a great contrast to Addis and a gentle introduction to the north of Ethiopia.

The town has a well-served airport that connects it to Addis Ababa and the entire north of the country, which is why most Ethiopia tours end here too.

Gondar

Gondar is also referred to as Gonder. Your Best Ethiopia safaris tour goes to this city in northern Ethiopia. It’s known for the walled Fasil Ghebbi fortress and palace compound. This was once the seat of Ethiopian emperors.

You will notice on your Best Ethiopia tour safari that this town in dominated by the immense 17th-century castle of Emperor Fasilides, which combines Portuguese, Indian and local architectural styles.

Outside the complex is Debre Berhan Selassie church, with an interior of elaborate murals, including a ceiling of faces.

Gondar previously served as the capital of both the Ethiopian Empire and the subsequent Begemder Province.

The city holds the remains of several royal castles, including those in Fasil Ghebbi (the Royal Enclosure), for which Gondar has been called the “Camelot of Africa”.

The history of Gondar as the capital of Ethiopia really begins In 1636. This is when Emperor Fasilides ended the tradition by decreeing Gondar to be the Ethiopia’s  capital.

He started building a walled enclosure around his castle became the palace compound for half a dozen of different palaces 3 churches and support buildings built of two centuries by his successors.

Axum

Aksum or Axum is a city in northern Ethiopia. Your Best Ethiopia tour safari goes to this town known for its tall, carved obelisks, relics of the ancient Kingdom of Aksum.

Most are in the northern Stelae Park, including a huge fallen pillar, now in pieces. Your Best Ethiopia tour safari goes to the Centuries-old St. Mary of Zion. This is a Christian church and pilgrimage site believed to have housed the biblical Ark of the Covenant.

The neighboring Chapel of the Tablet is said to contain the Ark today. On the Best Ethiopia tour safari, no one is allowed to see the same as it is a preserve of only one person in Ethiopia.

The Kingdom of Aksum (or Axum; also known as the Aksumite Empire) was a trading nation in the area of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea that existed from approximately 100 to 940 CE.

The Aksumite Empire at its height extended across most of present-day Eritrea, northern Ethiopia, western Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. The capital city of the empire was Aksum, now in northern Ethiopia.

By 350, Aksum conquered the Kingdom of Kush. Around 520, King Kaleb sent an expedition to Yemen. This was against the Jewish Himyarite King Dhu Nuwas, who was persecuting the Christian/Aksumite community in his kingdom.

These wars may have been Aksum’s swan-song as a great power, but it is also possible that Ethiopia was affected by the Plague of Justinian.

The kingdom covered parts of what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea. Aksum was deeply involved in the trade network between India and the Mediterranean (Rome, later Byzantium).

Aksum’s access to both the Red Sea and the Upper Nile enabled its strong navy to profit in trade between various African (Nubia), Arabian (Yemen), and Indian states.

The Kingdom of Aksum is notable for a number of achievements. It had its own alphabet, the Ge’ez alphabet.

Under Emperor Ezana, Aksum adopted Christianity, which gave rise to the present-day Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church.

There exist different hypotheses as to why the empire collapsed, but historians agree that climate changes must have greatly contributed to the end of Aksum.

Why the Best Ethiopia safari tour to Aksum? It’s supposedly home to the Queen of Sheba and the Ark of the Covenant (which holds Moses’ 10 commandments).

It definitely was the centre of an ancient civilisation on a level with Rome, Greece and Egypt!

Lalibela

The Best Ethiopia tour safari then heads to Lalibela. This is a town in the Amhara region of northern Ethiopia. It’s known for its distinctive rock-cut churches dating from the 12th and 13th centuries.

The Best of Ethiopia tour safari will be here for the rock strewn churches that are pilgrimage sites for Coptic Christians. Carved out of rock, the subterranean monoliths include huge Bete Medhane Alem, and cross-shaped Bete Giyorgis.

Many are joined by tunnels and trenches, and some have carved bas-reliefs and colored frescoes inside.

Most famous as the centre of Ethiopia’s rock-hewn churches, Lalibela is a town soaked in magic and mysticism. You will confirm the same on your Best Ethiopia tour safari.

A small, rural village, an unassuming place set amidst a stunning highland landscape, Lalibela is home to some of the finest UNESCO rock-hewn churches in the world.

In true Ethiopian form, these churches sit alongside a unique, ancient, fascinating and untainted culture. With no gift shops, no souvenir touts, no staged cultural shows, Lalibela is refreshingly real.

The 11 medieval monolithic cave churches of this 13th-century ‘New Jerusalem’ are situated in a mountainous region. Your Best Ethiopia tour safari goes to the heart of Ethiopia near a traditional village with circular-shaped dwellings.

Lalibela is a high place of Ethiopian Christianity, still today a place of pilmigrage and devotion. You can join into one of the pilgrimage on the Best Ethiopia tour safari.

Your Best Ethiopia tour safari will tour the two main groups of churches. To the north of the river Jordan: Biete Medhani Alem  (House of the Saviour of the World), Biete  Mariam (House of Mary), Biete  Maskal (House of the Cross), Biete Denagel (House of Virgins), Biete Golgotha Mikael (House of Golgotha Mikael)

To the south of the river yur Best Ethiopia tour safari will visit Biete Amanuel (House of Emmanuel), Biete Qeddus Mercoreus (House of St. Mercoreos), Biete Abba Libanos (House of Abbot Libanos), Biete Gabriel Raphael (House of Gabriel Raphael), and Biete Lehem (House of Holy Bread).

The eleventh church, Biete Ghiorgis (House of St. George), is isolated from the others, but connected by a system of trenches.

Tiya

The Best Ethiopia tour safari  then heads south with a stop in Tiya, is a town in central Ethiopia. It is situated in the Gurage Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region south of Addis Ababa. It is also the location of an archaeological site.

Tiya is among the most important of the roughly 160 archaeological sites discovered so far in the Soddo region, south of Addis Ababa. The Best Ethiopia tour safari  will stop here for you to be able to witness the same.

The site contains 36 monuments, including 32 carved stelae covered with symbols, most of which are difficult to decipher. Your Best Ethiopia tour safari will find the remains of an ancient Ethiopian culture whose age has not yet been precisely determined.

The pillar sites contain large stelae (monuments) of three types – anthropomorphic, phallic, and non-anthropomorphic/non-phallic. Anthropomorphic stelae are those which are given a human form. Phallic stelae are tall, thin shafts.

The final stelae are flat monuments that take on neither an anthropomorphic nor phallic form, yet still, take on the same basic form as the other megaliths.

Each of these types of stelae is prominent within the nine sites of the Gurage Zone. Additionally, most of the stelae in the Gurage Zone contain elaborate decorations.

They include symbols that resemble plants, swords, and human figures, standing “akimbo,” with their hands on their hips and elbows turned out.

Turmi

Further south, your Best Ethiopia tour safari  heads to Turmi, a market town in south-western Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region.

Your Best Ethiopia tour safari will go to a town hwith a latitude and longitude of 4°58′N 36°29′E with an elevation of 925 metres above sea level. Home to many of the Hamer people, Turmi has a weekly market on Mondays.

The small town of Turmi is the heart of the Omo Valley region where the Hamar tribe live. We timed our visit to arrive into Turmi on Monday, which is the big market day.

The people of all the Hamar villages in the area walk for hours to trade animals, goods that they have made, food they have grown, firewood and even souvenirs for tourists.

Down two side alleys are the mills where Hamar women take purchased grains to be ground into flour. The place buzzed with activities and we normally time your Best Ethiopia tour safari to be here during the market days.