Awash and Harar Land Tour 05 Days

Unique not only to Africa, but the entire world, Harar stands as one of the most fascinating cities in the world. Harar is the crossroads of the history of Africa and Arabia, a meeting point in the Horn of Africa where styles, languages, and architecture converge. Its creation is unknown, but by the 11th century, Harar became the center of Islam in the Horn of Africa. The 16th century was the city’s golden age, a time when poets penned the beauty of Harar and coffee was the drink of choice. Later the city was walled and off-limits to Christians. Intrepid explorer, Richard Burton, won the fame for the first Christian to enter the walled city, known as the jugol, in disguise as an Arab trader in the 1850s. Many more came, and today the city’s prized visitors are the tourists who come from all over Ethiopia and the world to witness a truly distinctive culture.
While in Harar, walk through and experience the street life, colorful markets, numerous mosques and old houses, which are slowly being remodeled for modern times. As night falls, hyenas slowly infiltrate the city’s walls, and the courageous Hyena man comes out to feed them. Visitors can decide or not to directly feed the hyenas.
On the way, you will spend a night in the Awash National Park, one of Ethiopia’s oldest national parks, located on the Awash River Gorge and home to numerous animals and plants. Here, in the dry savannah, visitors get that stereotypical African landscape and will take part in a short and exciting game drive. On one side of the park, visitors can sit in natural hot springs under a forest of palm trees. Watch Afari tribesmen using the park as a transit corridor, who may also stop for a quick swim.
Beyond Harar is the small town of Babile, which sits in the Valley of Marvels. The stark landscape, resembling another planet or the imagination of Dr. Seuss, is where the hot winds from Somalia have shaped boulders. Then south of Babile, you will visit the Harar Wildlife Sanctuary where conservationists are working under very difficult conditions to save the last herds of elephants native to that area as well as other species like the black-maned lion. As pressure from groups living in Ethiopia’s Somali and Oromia region mounts, the hundreds of elephants currently living in the refuge are at serious risk. Tourists visiting the park will only help ensure the animals’ future.