Addis Ababa
Ethiopia's capital and the diplomatic capital of Africa
Addis Ababa sits higher than almost any capital on Earth, scattered across the green highland hills of central Ethiopia at well over two thousand meters. Its name means new flower in Amharic, a fitting label for a city that is barely more than a century old yet serves as the political center of one of Africa's oldest nations. As the seat of the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, it functions as the continent's diplomatic capital, its conference halls and embassies giving a fast-growing metropolis of roughly six million an outsized global role.
The city climbs the southern foothills of the Entoto mountains, its elevation of around 2,355 meters making it the highest capital in Africa and one of the highest in the world. The altitude brings a cool, spring-like climate year round despite the tropical latitude, along with a rainy season fed by highland storms. Eucalyptus groves planted to supply firewood still cloak the hills above the city, and from the Entoto ridge the metropolis spreads across the plateau below, a patchwork of corrugated-iron neighborhoods, broad new ring roads and rising condominium towers.
Emperor Menelik II founded Addis Ababa in 1886 when his empress chose the site near its hot springs, and it soon became the permanent capital of an Ethiopia that, almost alone in Africa, never fell under lasting colonial rule. The city briefly endured Italian occupation in the 1930s but emerged as a symbol of African independence, hosting the founding of the Organization of African Unity in 1963. Today it is the seat of Ethiopian government, the hub of the country's fast-expanding economy and airline network, and the meeting place where the politics of the entire continent are negotiated.