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Ethiopia

One of the holy men of the Muslim religion. Harar was founded between the 7th and the 11th century and emerged as the center of Islamic culture and religion in the Horn of Africa.

A building with many different uses. Business, Residential and retail

Just outside in the street near one of the 5 gate entrances to the Harar Jugol

Just inside one of the the 5 gates is Harar Jugol a walled Muslim city with 368 narrow alleyways, said to be the fourth holiest city of Islam, with 82 mosques and 102 shrines dating back to the 10th century. The ± 3,5km almost 4m high fortified city wall was completed in the 16th century after the conquest of the Christian highlands, and it served as capital of the Harari Kingdom from 1520 to 1568, becoming an independent emirate in the 17th century. The old walled city was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in recognition of its cultural and architectonic heritage. It is sometimes known in Arabic as "the City of Saints".

Amazing all the commerce trade that was going on. Walking through the market I felt like I had gone back 1,000 years in history and I was walking the cobbled streets.

A young mother and her baby.

Chile's anyone?

Young teenager getting the eye of a beautiful young lady.

Chat for sale.

Chat, Khat, several names used is a slow-growing shrub endemic to the highlands of the Horn of Africa, where it has been cultivated as a stimulant for millennia. The plant’s edible leaf is a legal stimulant in most parts of Arabia and the Horn, where it is popular with Muslims, whose religion forbids them from drinking alcohol. Classified as a drug of abuse by the World Health Organization, it is nevertheless regarded as less harmful and less addictive than either tobacco or alcohol.

The hills around Harar produce what is widely claimed to be the world’s finest khat, much of which is exported to neighboring Somaliland. But it is also consumed abundantly in Harar.

Khat is an acquired taste. The leaves are very bitter, even when supplemented with a spoonful of sugar, or a sweet soft drink. And the reward for all that rumination is slim: a light (some say almost imperceptible) buzz, no more potent, albeit different in quality, to the after-effects of a beer or a couple of strong espressos. The effects are many young teenagers to 30 plus somethings are losing all their teeth due to the high concentration of sugar and numerous cokes consumed daily. You see large groups of young people late morning already consuming huge amounts of this Chat or Khat.

I found out from talking to locals that huge amounts of Chat are shipped weekly aboard Ethiopian Airlines planes legally to Canada for consumption by Ethiopians living abroad.

You can see this is a fascinating market to walk through.

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