4/15/2017 Ethiopia ­ Wikipedia Coordinates: 8°N 38°E Ethiopia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ? Ethiopia (/ˌiːθiˈoʊpiә/; Amharic: ኢትዮጵያ , ʾĪtyōṗṗyā, Federal Democratic Republic of listen ), officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Ethiopia (የኢትዮጵያ ፌዴራላዊ ዲሞክራሲያዊ ሪፐብሊክ, yeʾĪtiyoṗṗya Fēdēralawī Dēmokirasīyawī Rīpebilīk listen ), is የኢትዮጵያ ፌዴራላዊ a country located in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with ዴሞክራሲያዊሪፐብሊክ (Amharic) Eritrea to the north and northeast, Djibouti and Somalia to the yeʾĪtiyoṗṗya Fēdēralawī Dēmokirasīyawī east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the Rīpebilīk south. With nearly 100 million inhabitants,[3] Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world, as well as the second­most populous nation on the African continent after Nigeria. It occupies a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 sq mi), and its capital and largest city is Addis [3] Ababa. Flag Emblem Some of the oldest evidence for anatomically modern humans Anthem: ወደፊት ገስግሺ ውድ እናት ኢትዮጵያ has been found in Ethiopia.[9] It is widely considered as the March Forward, Dear Mother Ethiopia region from which modern humans first set out for the Middle 0:00 MENU East and places beyond.[10][11][12] According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic­speaking populations settled in the Horn region during the ensuing Neolithic era.[13] Tracing its roots to the 2nd millennium BC, Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history. During the first centuries AD, the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region,[14][15][16][17] followed by the Ethiopian Empire circa 1137. Ethiopia derived prestige with its uniquely successful military resistance during the late 19th­century Scramble for Africa, becoming the only African country to defeat a European colonial power and retain its sovereignty. Subsequently, many African nations adopted the colors of Ethiopia's flag following their independence. It was the first independent African member of the 20th­century League of Nations and the United Nations.[18] In 1974, at the end of Haile Selassie's reign, power fell to a communist military dictatorship known as the Derg, backed by the Soviet Union, until it was defeated by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, which has ruled since about the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Ethiopia's ancient Ge'ez script, also known as Ethiopic, is one of the oldest alphabets still in use in the world.[19] The Ethiopian calendar, which is approximately seven years and three months behind the Gregorian calendar, co­exists alongside the Borana calendar. A slight majority of the population adheres to Christianity (mainly the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and P'ent'ay), while around a third follows Islam (primarily https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia 1/38 4/15/2017 Ethiopia ­ Wikipedia Sunni Islam). The country is the site of the Migration to Capital Addis Ababa Abyssinia and the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa at Negash. and largest city 9°1′N 38°45′E A substantial population of Ethiopian Jews, known as Bete Official languages None[1] Israel, resided in Ethiopia until the 1980s, but most of them have Working language Amharic since gradually emigrated to Israel.[20][21] Ethiopia is a multilingual nation with around 80 ethnolinguistic groups, the Regional languages Oromo, Amharic, Somali, Tigrinya four largest of which are the Oromiffa, Amhara, Somali, and Tigrayans. Most people in the country speak Afroasiatic Religion 62.8% Christianity languages of the Cushitic or Semitic branches. Additionally, 33.9% Islam 2.6% traditional faiths Omotic languages are spoken by ethnic minority groups [2] inhabiting the southern regions. Nilo­Saharan languages are also 0.6% others spoken by the nation's Nilotic ethnic minorities. Demonym Ethiopian Ethiopia is the place of origin for the coffee bean which Government Federal parliamentary republic originated from the place called Kefa (which was one of the 14 • President Mulatu Teshome provinces in the old Ethiopian administration). It is a land of • Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn natural contrasts, with its vast fertile West, jungles, and numerous rivers, and the world's hottest settlement of Dallol in Legislature Federal Parliamentary its north. The Ethiopian Highlands are Africa's largest Assembly continuous mountain ranges, and Sof Omar Caves contain • Upper house House of Federation Africa's largest cave. Ethiopia has the most UNESCO World • Lower house House of Peoples' Representatives Heritage Sites in Africa.[22] Formation Ethiopia is one of the founding members of the UN, the Group • Dʿmt c. 980 BC of 24 (G­24), the Non­Aligned Movement, G­77 and the • Kingdom of c. 100 AD Organisation of African Unity. Ethiopia's capital city Addis Aksum Ababa serves as the headquarters of the African Union, the Pan • Ethiopian Empire 1137 African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the United • Current constitution August 1995 Nations Economic Commission for Africa, African Aviation Area Training HQ, the African Standby Force, and many of the global • Total 1,104,300 km2 NGOs focused on Africa. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ethiopia (426,400 sq mi) (27th) suffered from civil wars and communist purges which • Water (%) 0.7 devastated its economy. The country has begun to recover Population recently however, and now has the largest economy (by GDP) in • 2015 estimate 99,465,819[3][4] (13th) East Africa and Central Africa.[23][24][25] According to Global • 2007 census [5] Fire Power, Ethiopia has the 42nd most powerful military in the 73,750,932 • Density 2 [26] 82.58/km (213.9/sq mi) world, and the third most powerful in Africa. (123rd) GDP (PPP) 2017 estimate • Total [6] Contents $184.913 billion • Per capita $1,995[6] 1 Names GDP (nominal) 2017 estimate 2 History • Total $74.084 billion[6] 2.1 Prehistory • Per capita $799[6] 2.2 Antiquity 2.3 During Muhammad's era Gini (2011) 33.6[7] 2.4 Middle Ages medium 2.5 Aussa Sultanate HDI (2015) [8] 2.6 Zemene Mesafint 0.448 2.7 From Menelik II to Adwa (1889–1913) low · 174th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia 2/38 4/15/2017 Ethiopia ­ Wikipedia 2.8 Haile Selassie I era (1916–1974) Currency Birr (ETB) 2.9 Derg era (1974–1991) Time zone EAT (UTC+3) 2.10 Federal Democratic Republic (1991– present) Drives on the right 3 Politics Calling code +251 3.1 Governance 3.2 Human rights ISO 3166 code ET 4 Administrative divisions Internet TLD .et 5 Geography 5.1 Climate 6 Environment 6.1 Wildlife 6.2 Deforestation 7 Economy 7.1 Agriculture 7.2 Exports 7.3 Transportation 8 Demographics 8.1 Languages 8.2 Script 8.3 Religion 8.4 Urbanization 8.4.1 Rural and urban life 9 Health 10 Education 11 Culture 11.1 Naming 11.2 Calendar 11.3 Time 11.4 Cuisine 11.5 Music 11.6 Sport 12 World Heritage Sites in Ethiopia 13 See also 14 References 15 Bibliography 16 Further reading 17 External links Names The origin of the word 'Ethiopia' is uncertain. In the 15th­century Ge'ez Book of Aksum, the name is ascribed to a legendary individual called Ityopp'is, an extra­Biblical son of Cush, son of Ham, said to have founded the city of Axum. In addition to this Cushite figure, two of the earliest Semitic kings are also said to have borne the name Ityopp'is, according to traditional Ethiopian king lists. [27] Another theory is that the name Αἰθιοπία (from Αἰθίοψ, Aithiops, 'an Ethiopian') is a compound word, derived from the two Greek words, from αἴθω + ὤψ (aitho "I burn" + ops "face").[28][29][30] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia 3/38 4/15/2017 Ethiopia ­ Wikipedia The name Αἰθιοπία appears twice in the Iliad and three times in the Odyssey.[31] The Greek historian Herodotus specifically uses it for all the lands south of Egypt,[32] including Sudan and modern Ethiopia. Pliny the Elder said that the country's name comes from a son of Hephaestus (also called Vulcan) named 'Aethiops'.[33] The name Ethiopia also occurs in many translations of the Old Testament, but the Hebrew texts have Kush, which refers principally to Nubia.[34] In the New Testament, however, the Greek term Aithiops ('an Ethiopian') does occur.[35] History Prehistory Several important finds have propelled Ethiopia and the surrounding region to the forefront of palaentology. The oldest hominid discovered to date in Ethiopia is the 4.2 million year old Ardipithicus ramidus (Ardi) found by Tim D. White in 1994.[36] The most well known hominid discovery is Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy). Known locally as Dinkinesh, the specimen was found in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Region in 1974 by Donald Johanson, and is one of the most complete and best preserved adult Australopithecine fossils ever uncovered. Lucy's taxonomic name refers to the region where the discovery was made. The hominid is [37][38][39] estimated to have lived 3.2 million years ago. A Homo sapiens idaltu hominid skull. Ethiopia is also considered the site of the emergence of anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens, in the Middle Paleolithic about 200,000 years ago. The earliest known modern human bones were found in Southwestern Ethiopia and are called the Omo remains.[40] Additionally, skeletal remains of Homo sapiens idaltu were found at a site in the Middle Awash in Ethiopia. Dated to approximately 160,000 years ago, they may represent an extinct subspecies of Homo sapiens, or the immediate ancestors of anatomically modern humans.[41] According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic­speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic era from the family's proposed urheimat ("original homeland") in the Nile Valley,[13] or the Near East.[42] Other scholars propose that the Afroasiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, with its speakers subsequently dispersing from there.[43] Antiquity Around the 8th century BC, a kingdom known as Dʿmt was established in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.