Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction:
Ethiopia has been called the citadel (strong fort) of Africa. It is a mountainous
country, various etheric groups of peoples speaking many languages. It has an
ancient culture and a recorded history dating bock several thousand years.
1. Highland (della),
2. Middle (weina-dega);
3. Lowland (kola).
The middle level climate of Ethiopia eliminates survive of tsetse fly, cattle’s and
draught animals are found abundance.
Ethiopia Ethnic Groups:
Ethiopia has a remarkable variety of people. Ethiopians remarkable peoples may group
in to three major ethnic groups in ancient times and these groups are distributed over
the country. The ethnic groups are in Ethiopia are;
Numerous sub groups are exist and the largest sub group is the Gala group and the
language of this group is Galigna is spoken almost as widely as is Amharic. The original
habitat was probably in the corner of the horn of Africa. These groups are penetrate in
to the Abyssinian highlands (fertile plateau) in their way of nomadic life and became
permanent curvatures.
Nilotic Group: This is the smallest group (Sidamo) in Ethiopia and this group occupies
the western border past in the country. The people belongs this group lives in the
remote low-lands near river banks and shore of the lacks in Ethiopia.
This group is sub dives in to Baria and Kinama tribes in the nort and the small Nilotic
tribes in Ethiopia sudanese border such as Mekan, mao, Gunaza etc. The people made
their living by hunting, trapping and fishing.
Ethiopia Architectural Characters:
Ethiopians long historical heritage and architectural achievements provides as useful
reference points for understanding and analysis of architecture types. The architecture
(buildings) of ancient kingdom of Axum are well known and they erected truly
imposing structure.
The various ancient architectural buildings in Ethiopia shows the huge monumental
dimensions in constructing arches, vaults even in rooms and window opening sizes.
The materials used in the construction is earth blocks, wood, sedimentary rocks, lime
and mud mortar.
Ethiopia Architectural Classifications:
Ethiopian architecture predominately classified in to the followings
types architectural character of the Ethnic groups such as;
a. Religious Architecture;
b. Imperial Architecture;
c. Tomb Architecture;
d. Residential/palace Architecture.
The above four architecture classification can be seen in Ethiopia under different
Ethnic groups of elite peoples during various time in the history.
Construction Materials:
Stone is a widely used in different monumental buildings in Ethiopian architecture
from ancient up to 19th century. Exposed dressed stone was used for public builds as
an elegant material.
Arches, corners and entrances were built of stone by carefully curving each piece and
pointing the joints.
Ethiopia Architecture:
Another material used in Ethiopian architecture was curved wood. Important buildings
were initially built of stone and timber by Indian crafts man.
The Indian craftsmen were the most skilled builders using wood, and they used curved
wood for building front facades, balustrades, columns and fascia borders.
Wood planks and other structural materials were prepared manually until Alfred llg,
the Swiss imperial advisor and engineers, introduced the first sawmill.
Corrugated iron sheeting was first introduced in 1903, when the railway line arrived at
Dire Dawa. There was a lot of demanded for the new material the importation
increased accordingly until it significantly thatch roofs.
The establishment of a brick factory in 1907 – its own roof covered by the new
corrugated iron sheeting.
In spite of their buildings Muslims, the Indians were also employed to build churches.
The buildings of the Indian master builder Hajji Kawas, from pasha war, clearly reflect
this Indian Islamic style.
Ethiopia Architecture Construction Methods:
If one had a modest income in those days, they can live in a humble house with a
wooden frame plastered with earth mortal – known as Chika Bet in Amharic.
But if somebody rich, he could built a two storey structure with stone masonry being
used for the lower- level walls to support the upper floor. The upper level would then
be completed with the clay plastered wooden frame walls.
The mud-plastered wall would then be painted or white washed with lime, depending
on the income of the owner.
From inside, the mud plastering was eventually covered with imported wall paper
after first pasting old newspapers. Some residences have canvas ceilings, which were
decorated with paintings.
Later on, ceilings decorations, which were made of pressed sheet metal and intended
to imitate gypsum work was appear. But the most common technique involved white
washed canvass ceilings with wooden frames.
A distinctive feather of the Ethiopian architecture is the finial (architectural decorative
object at top of roof). Finials are made of wood and placed at the top of ridge cap of
palaces or more humble residences.
Traditionally, rural houses had finials at the apex of the thatched roof, to seal them off
from water seepage but also as a decorative feature.
Churches are also decorated at the apex of their roof with small highly decorated finial,
which is called a goulelat, and a circular cross is supported by a conical-shaped
miniature roof with decorative chimes hanging from its eaves this element as strong
existing tradition.