Give Gondar two days. One covers Fasil Ghebbi, the walled compound where six emperors built castles from 1636 onward, then Fasilides Bath below it and the painted ceiling at Debre Berhan Selassie on the ridge northeast of town. The second takes Kuskuam, Ras Gimb and the Kidame Gebeya market, or runs north to Wolleka and the Kossoye escarpment. One ticket covers the enclosure and the bath.
Gondar was Ethiopia's capital for two centuries, and the emperors who ruled from it left a walled compound of stone castles standing in the middle of the modern city. The Simien escarpment begins two hours north, which is why most visitors pass through here twice.
Six emperors built inside one wall, so the compound reads as a chronology: Fasilides' square keep of 1636, then Iyasu's palace, Dawit's hall, Mentewab's castle. Nubian, Arab and Baroque lines worked into the same local stone.
The ceiling is the reason to come: a grid of winged angel faces looking down over walls painted end to end with biblical scenes. Twelve stone towers ring the compound, one for each apostle. Its own ticket, not the enclosure's.
A stone pavilion standing in an empty rectangular pool, its wall gripped by fig roots. It is filled once a year for Timket, when the crowd goes into the water with it, and the rest of the year you have the trees.
An escarpment that falls more than a kilometre in one step, with gelada troops feeding along the rim and walia ibex on the cliffs below. Gondar is the gateway: permits and a scout are arranged at the Debark headquarters.
Empress Mentewab built this hillside retreat in the 1730s after Emperor Bakaffa died: a palace, a banqueting hall and Qusquam Mariam church, where she is buried. A one-room museum beside it holds royal remains and a few objects.
A compact stone palace, dated by some to the 17th century and by others to the 18th, now Gondar's museum. It is the one place in the city that carries the story past the emperors and into the twentieth century.
The Beta Israel community that lived here was airlifted to Israel in the 1980s and 1990s. What is left is an empty synagogue with a Star of David on its roof, and stalls selling the black clay figures the village became known for.
The place the highland plateau simply stops: juniper on the rim, a long drop into haze, and the Simien range lined up to the north. The last easy stop before Debark, and a preview of what the park does at scale.
The whole city laid out from above, with the Royal Enclosure walls in the middle of it and Debre Berhan Selassie on its own ridge. A bajaj gets you up in ten minutes; walking takes closer to forty.
The city market trades every day and fills on Saturday, which is what its name means. Coffee by the sack, clay jebena pots, cones of berbere and shiro, and the woven cotton the highlands still make.
The empress's own quarters, with Gondarine cross motifs cut into the stair tower.
A long roofless hall built for state feasts, the widest single span inside the walls.
Two low buildings on the north side, the library and chancellery of Fasilides' son.
Winged angel faces across the whole ceiling, and twelve towers for the apostles.
Ethiopian cooking in a garden compound, with coffee roasted at the table.
About 100 km north and three hours, and where every Simien permit is issued.
A cooperative village on the Bahir Dar road that divides its work without regard to gender.
Three hours south on Lake Tana, with the Blue Nile Falls beyond it. Better as an overnight.
Ethiopian Christmas. Churches hold an all-night vigil, and the doro wot comes out the next day.
Ethiopian Epiphany, and the country's largest. Fasilides Bath is filled and the crowd goes in with it.
Ethiopia marks the 1896 defeat of the Italian army at Adwa. A public holiday, so sites close.
Orthodox Easter, at the end of a fast of 55 days. The year's biggest meal follows the midnight service.
Boys sing at doors for mulmul bread and whips crack in the streets. It marks the Transfiguration.
Girls and young women close the Filseta fast in embroidered dress, singing house to house.
Ethiopian New Year, on the 12th in a leap year. Yellow meskel daisies and a round of house visits.
The Demera bonfire is lit on the eve of the 26th and burns in the squares through the night.
The practical way in. Ethiopian Airlines is the only carrier and flies from Addis Ababa in about an hour. The terminal sits south of the city at Azezo.
Selam Bus and Sky Bus run the comfortable services to Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar from the terminal in Arada, in the centre of town. Bahir Dar takes about three hours.
Minibuses for Debark and the Simien park headquarters leave Arada through the day. They go when full rather than to a timetable, so start early.
Three-wheelers are how Gondar moves, shared along fixed routes or hired whole. Nothing is metered, so agree the fare before you get in.
Chicken and a whole boiled egg in a long-cooked berbere sauce. Every holiday ends with it.
Cubed beef or lamb seared with onion, rosemary and chilli, brought out still spitting.
Minced raw beef with spiced butter and mitmita. Ask for leb leb if you want it warmed.
Ground chickpea stew, thick or soupy. The fasting-day staple and the best cheap meal here.
The fasting platter: pulses and vegetables in a wheel on injera. Wednesdays, Fridays and Lent.
Raw beef cut at the butcher and eaten with awaze and mustard. A habit as much as a dish.
Minced tripe, liver and lean beef fried hard with butter and spice. Traditionally breakfast.
Honey wine fermented with gesho and poured from a berele flask. Light to fierce, and cheap.
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