The capital of Africa — altitude, injera, and the oldest coffee on Earth
Ethiopia's highland capital at 2,355 meters is simultaneously the headquarters of the African Union, the city closest to the origins of coffee as a drink, and home to one of the world's most distinctive food cultures — injera (a spongy sourdough flatbread, wider than a plate) serves as both food and utensil, eaten communally with a dozen small dishes piled on top. Coffee is not an import here; the highland forests of Kaffa region are the wild ancestral home of Coffea arabica, and the Ethiopian coffee ceremony — roasting green beans, grinding by hand, three rounds of serving — is a social ritu…
Addis Ababa was founded in 1886 by Emperor Menelik II, whose wife Empress Taitu chose the site and named it ("New Flower" in Amharic). Ethiopia is the only African country that was never colonized — Italy attempted to invade in 1895–96 and was decisively defeated at the Battle of Adwa, making Addis Ababa the capital of the continent's most famous anti-colonial military victory. The city later became the headquarters of the Organisation of African Unity (now African Union) in 1963, cementing its symbolic role as Africa's diplomatic capital.