The walled city that feeds wild hyenas by hand
Harar is the fourth holiest city in Islam — a UNESCO-listed walled city of 82 mosques, 99 shrines, and labyrinthine alleys where you can watch the Hyena Men hand-feed wild spotted hyenas every night under lantern light. The old city, Jugol, has been continuously inhabited for over 500 years and harbors a unique Harari culinary tradition of ful, bunna coffee ceremonies, and fragrant spiced stews from the city's aromatic market stalls.
Founded in the 7th century as an Islamic outpost on Ethiopia's eastern highlands, Harar became one of the most important centers of Islamic scholarship in sub-Saharan Africa, rivaling Timbuktu. The Jugol wall, built in the 16th century under Emir Nur, enclosed a city that traded coffee, ivory, and musk across the Red Sea for centuries. Richard Burton made it famous in Europe after his disguised entry in 1855, and Arthur Rimbaud spent a decade here as a coffee and gun merchant.