Two days covers Harar. Give the first to Jugol: the Grand Mosque at the centre, the Sherif collection, Gidir Magala for spice and camel meat, and the lanes between the gates, which are the sight rather than the route to it. Stay out for the hyena feeding at the wall after dark. The second day runs east to Babille and the sculpted rocks of the Dakhata valley.
Updated · Wimup Editorial
Harar is a walled city on the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands, and the old town inside the wall is the whole point. Jugol packs 82 mosques and 102 shrines into roughly a square kilometre of lanes, and the hyenas come to the gates after dark.
The wall runs about 3.5 km and stands roughly five metres high, and what it encloses is a kilometre by 800 metres of lanes too narrow for a car. Jugol is the sight, not the route to it. Walk it twice, once early and once at dusk.
Two hyena men work sites outside the walls after dark, calling wild hyenas in by name and passing them scraps from a stick. It starts around 6.30pm and runs under an hour. Spectators pay a small fee, and you can hold the stick yourself.
The main market inside the walls, and the city's butchery and spice hub. Camel meat on the block, chillies by the sack, bundles of khat moving through by the armful. The loudest corner of Jugol and the one that explains it.
The Grand Mosque at the centre of Jugol, attributed to Abadir, the scholar Harar counts as its founder. Two white minarets over a low courtyard. Non-Muslim visitors are generally not admitted inside, so this one is read from the square.
The private collection Abdullah Ali Sherif opened to the public in 2008: Islamic manuscripts, Harari coins, weaving, jewellery, weapons and instruments. The best single hour in the city, in a house that carries its own history.
A restored merchant's house, opened in 2000, holding the photographs Rimbaud took here. He had stopped writing poetry years before he arrived in 1880 to trade coffee and hides, and he never lived in this building. Go up to the top floor.
The sprawl outside the western gate, known locally as the Christian market. Spice mounds, incense, secondhand clothing and produce trucked up from the lowlands, spilling out of doorways and onto the road.
The shrine of the 12th-century scholar Harar counts as its founder, and one of the 102 the walled town holds. It is a working pilgrimage site rather than a monument, so people are here to pray, not to look.
A reserve across the Erer and Gobelle valleys holding a small isolated elephant population. The herds move with the season and sightings are luck, so treat it as a drive through thorn country with a chance attached.
Wind and water have left the Dakhata valley full of balanced rocks and slender stacks, and the best stretch begins a few kilometres east of Babille on the Jijiga road. Most people photograph it from the car. Walking in with a guide is the better hour.
The main way in, on the Addis Ababa side, with the Christian market spilling out beyond it.
Opened in 1889 under Ras Makonnen, the first duke of Harar. The only gate that is not original.
The shrine of the scholar Harar counts as its founder, and a working place of pilgrimage.
A domed shrine for the 16th-century emir credited with raising the wall around Jugol.
Outside Argob Bari, and one of the two places the hyena men feed after dark.
A gate shrine, and one of the two sites where the Shuwalid festival is held each year.
Abdullah Ali Sherif's private collection, opened in 2008: manuscripts, coins, textiles and instruments.
A restored merchant's house holding the photographs Rimbaud took in Harar. Opened in 2000.
A traditional house kept as it was lived in, down to the nedeba platforms and the wall of baskets.
The late 19th-century house where Ras Makonnen's son, the future Haile Selassie, spent much of his childhood.
The market inside the walls: butchery, spice and chilli by the sack. Jugol's busiest hour.
The Christian market outside the western gate. Produce, incense and secondhand clothes.
The largest khat market in Ethiopia, west of Harar. It trades early and empties by mid-morning.
The walled old town, a kilometre by 800 metres. Vehicles stop at the gates, so everything here is walked.
Horse Square, at the centre of Jugol. Guides, bajaj drivers and half the city pass through it.
The quarter behind the eastern gate, and the ground the hyena men work just outside it.
The commercial strip outside the walls on Charleville Avenue, where the hotels and banks are.
A hotel restaurant in Shenkor on Charleville Avenue, and the default answer in the new town.
Ethiopian cooking with a proper fasting menu, so there is always something vegan on the wheel.
The old government hotel's dining room, running Ethiopian plates alongside pizza and burgers.
A restored Harari house taking guests, and the simplest way to eat Harari home cooking. Arrange it ahead.
About 35 km southeast, across the Erer and Gobelle valleys. The herds move seasonally.
The Dakhata valley, where wind has left balanced rocks and stacks along the Jijiga road.
Monday mornings, and one of the largest camel markets in the region. Be there early.
The railway town on the plain below, an hour down the escarpment. The airport is there too.
Ethiopian Christmas, kept by Harar's Orthodox minority at Medhane Alem and the churches outside the wall.
Epiphany. The tabot is carried out for a dawn blessing, and the crowd is soaked in the blessed water.
The month reorders the whole city: quiet days, markets that wake after sunset, and no meals served in daylight.
The end of Ramadan, and the biggest morning of the year inside the walls. Prayer first, visiting all day.
Harar's own three-day festival, closing six extra days of fasting. UNESCO inscribed it in 2023.
The feast of sacrifice. Livestock prices climb for a fortnight beforehand and the markets run late.
The Ethiopian new year, at the end of the long rains. Ethiopia runs seven to eight years behind the Gregorian count.
The finding of the True Cross, marked with a procession and the lighting of the demera bonfire at dusk.
The way in. Ethiopian Airlines flies from Addis Ababa in about an hour, and the terminal is roughly 54 km from Harar, an hour by road up the escarpment.
Shared minibuses and taxis run the Dire Dawa road all day, leaving when full rather than to a timetable. Hotels will arrange a private car for the airport run.
Blue three-wheelers cover the new town and the ground outside the gates. Agree the fare before you get in. Inside Jugol the lanes are too narrow, so you walk.
Around 500 km and the better part of a day. It is a long haul on a road that climbs and drops, and the Dire Dawa flight costs little more.
A thick lentil or bean soup, spiced heavily. What breaks the fast during Ramadan.
Sourdough flatbread of fermented teff. It is the plate, the cutlery and the base of the meal.
Fenugreek broth with meat and potatoes, slightly tart. The Harari dish everything else is judged against.
Fried triangles of spiced meat or lentil, sold from every second doorway in Jugol.
A layered pastry fried with egg, torn by hand and taken with honey. A Harar breakfast.
Milled chickpeas cooked down with berbere and onion, served bubbling in the clay dish.
Dried whole in the cherry rather than washed, which is where the fruit and the winey edge come from.
A pale lager brewed in the city since 1984. Ask for Hakim Stout if you want the dark one.
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