Ethiopia ratified the World Heritage Convention on 6 July 1977
The Inscription of Aksum on the World Heritage List
Aksum’s archaeological site was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1980.
The ruins of the site are highly distinctive and spread over a very wide area, including stelae of imposing height, an enormous table of stone, vestiges of columns, and royal tombs inscribed with Aksumite legends and traditions. The giant stelae include the largest monolith ever carved by human hands. The stelae are unique creations. As masterpieces of human creative genius, they qualify Aksum for inclusion on the World Heritage List. As an urban ensemble, the site was inscribed as featuring testimonies to cultural, architectural and technological developments which illustrate a significant stage in human history. Elements of the site are consequently of outstanding universal value from the historical, artistic and scientific points of view.
The western part of the town contains the sub-foundations of three large buildings known as Enda-Semon, Enda-Mikael and Taakha-Maryam. These are the ruins of ancient castles dating from the 1st millennium A.D., the largest of which was 120 metres long and 85 metres wide. Other castle ruins exist to the west, outside the limits of the town itself, and also beneath the present-day Maryam-Zion.
The site contains a great quantity of historic relics in the form of ruined buildings, sculptures, pottery, coins or inscriptions, the study of which is indispensable to understanding Ethiopian antiquity.
At the joint request of Italy and Ethiopia, UNESCO took responsibility for the re-installation of the stele in Aksum, in close cooperation with the Ethiopian Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, thanks to the financial contribution of the Italian Government. The project - following the transportation of the massive fragments of the stele to Aksum - involves re-installing the stele in its original location so that it may regain its lost integrity. UNESCO further aims to contribute to the preservation and enhancement of Aksum.
There are 8 Ethiopian sites inscribed on the World Heritage List
• Rock-hewn Churches, Lalibela – 1978
In a mountainous region in the heart of Ethiopia, the eleven medieval monolithic cave churches of this 13th-century "New Jerusalem" were carved out of rock near a traditional village with circular-shaped dwellings.
• Fasil Ghebbi, Gondar Region – 1979
Residence of Ethiopian emperor Fasilides and his successors during the 16th and 17th centuries, the fortress-city of Fasil Ghebbi, surrounded by a 900 metre wall, contains palaces, churches, monasteries and unique public and private buildings marked by Hindu and Arabic influences, and transformed by the baroque style brought to Gondar by the Jesuit missionaries.
• Lower Valley of the Awash – 1980
A reference point in the study of the origins of mankind, the Awash Valley contains one of the most important groupings of palaeontological sites on the African continent.
• Tiya – 1980
Of the roughly 160 archaeological sites discovered so far in the Soddo region, south of Addis Ababa, Tiya is one of the most important. The site contains 36 monuments, including 32 carved stelae covered with symbols, for the most part difficult to decipher, which are the remains of an ancient Ethiopian culture, whose age has not yet been precisely determined.
• Aksum – 1980
The Kingdom of Aksum held political power at the heart of ancient Ethiopia until the 7th century. The massive ruins of the kingdom's capital are dominated by obelisks and monolithic stelae ; these were erected during the third and fourth centuries A.D. as funerary markers for deceased members of its elite.
• Lower Valley of the Omo – 1980
A prehistoric site near Lake Turkana, the lower valley of the Omo is renowned the world over. The discovery of many fossils there, especially Homo gracilis, has been important in the study of human evolution.
• Harar Jugol, the Fortified Historic Town – 2006
The fortified historic town of Harar is located in the eastern part of the country on a plateau with deep gorges surrounded by deserts and savannah. The walls surrounding this sacred Muslim city were built between the 13th and 16th centuries. Harar Jugol, said to be the fourth holiest city of Islam, numbers 82 mosques, three of which date from the 10th century, 102 shrines, and several typologies of traditional houses, different from the domestic layout usually known in Muslim countries, and also unique in Ethiopia.
• Simien National Park - 1978 (N iii, iv)
Massive erosion over the years on the Ethiopian plateau has created one of the most spectacular landscapes in the world, with jagged mountain peaks, deep valleys and sharp precipices as deep as 1,500 m. The park is the refuge of extremely rare animals such as the Gelada baboon, the Simen fox and the Walia ibex, a goat found nowhere else in the world.
The Simien National Park is inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger
source... UNESCO
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