Africa's Camelot — castles, injera, and mountain light
Gondar was the imperial capital of Ethiopia for two centuries and left behind a UNESCO Fortress-City of six royal castles clustered within a walled compound — built in a style that mixes Ethiopian, Moorish, and Portuguese baroque architecture found nowhere else in Africa. The Debre Berhan Selassie church, its ceiling painted with rows of cherubic angels staring down at you, and the surrounding teff fields and eucalyptus forests make it the most atmospheric highland city in the Horn of Africa.
Emperor Fasilides founded Gondar in 1636 as Ethiopia's first permanent capital after centuries of a mobile royal court. The city reached its zenith under Emperor Iyasu I (1682–1706) whose building projects included the famous bath complex still filled for Timkat (Ethiopian Epiphany) every January — the largest public religious ceremony in the country.