"Wandering Capitals" and the Genesis of Addis Ababa

Authors

  • Benyam Muhe

Abstract

Addis Ababa's current urban form in the old part of the city shows very irregular pattern filled with very dense, overcrowded or suffocated low-rise settlements. This urban area owes greatly to the original land colonization or inhabitation and culture. This inhabitation culture also goes further to the tradition of the "wandering capitals", which were non-permanent settlements or camps of kings. The paper tried to expound on the nature of these settlements and the shaping of the earliest urban form of Addis Ababa.

References

Edouard Berlan, Addis-Abeba: la plus haute ville d’Afrique: étude géographique, Impr. Allier, 1963

Charles Fraser Beckingham and George Wynn Brereton Huntingford, Some Records of Ethiopia 1593-1646, Hakluyt Society Works, 1954, p. 82

Donald Crummey, Some Precusrsors of Addis Ababa: Towns in Christian Ethiopia in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century in Ahmed Zekaria et al. (Eds.) Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Centenary of Addis Ababa, Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University, 1986, pp. 9-10

Giorghis Fasil and Denis Gérard, The City & Its Architectural Heritage. Addis Ababa 1886-1941. La Ville & Son Patrimoine Architectural, Shama Books, 2007

Edward Gleichen. With the Mission to Menelik, 1897, E. Arnold, 1898

Spiro Kostof, The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings through History; Original Drawings by Richard Tobias. Thames and Hudson, 1991, pp. 37-40

Pankhurst Richard, History of Ethiopian Towns from the Middle Ages to the Early Nineteenth Century, (Aethiopistische Forschungen 8), Steiner Wiesboden,

Bahru Zewde, Early Sefers of Addis Ababa: Patterns of Evolution in Ahmed Zekaria et al. (Eds), Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Centenary of Addis Ababa, Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University, 1986

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Published

2014-12-15

Issue

Section

L'Architettura delle città-The Journal of Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni

How to Cite

"Wandering Capitals" and the Genesis of Addis Ababa. (2014). L’architettura Delle città  - The Journal of the Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni, 2(3-4-5). http://architetturadellecitta.it/index.php/adc/article/view/35