Gondar: Castles, Pools and the Camelot of Africa

In the 17th century Emperor Fasiladas planted a capital on a highland plain north of Lake Tana and filled it with castles. Gondar kept that royal role for two centuries, and its walled Fasil Ghebbi — a UNESCO World Heritage site — remains the most castle-like place in Ethiopia.

Fasil Ghebbi gathers a dozen palaces and churches inside high stone walls. Fasiladas' own castle dominates — a square tower of brown basalt with a faint Portuguese flavour, the signature of the capital that imported builders from across the world. Allow unhurried hours; the rooms and staircases reward the curious.

A short walk from the compound is a rectangular stone pool built for the emperor's pleasure. Every January it floods again — for Timket, Epiphany — when the town processes down to restage the baptism of Christ and the pool becomes the stage of Ethiopia's most colourful festival.

Gondar's finest interior is a plain-looking church that hides a masterpiece: Debre Berhan Selassie's ceiling of hundreds of cherubim faces painted above walls of luminous biblical scenes. It is routinely called the most beautiful church painting in Ethiopia — and survives the claim.

Gondar is also the operational base for the Simien Mountains — the park office at Debark is a half-day's drive away. A day of castles followed by a trek on the escarpment is the pairing our travellers love most; see it shaped on our Gondar, Bahir Dar and Lake Tana tour.