Sheraton Addis is a retreat in Ethiopia within a landscape of vital greens and colorful wildflowers under the African sky.Short drive to the airport it is  close to the  National Museum, and the genuine excitement of the Merkato.

Experience a rare level of service at the Sheraton Addis,which is the 1st hotel in Ethiopia & East Africa  member of the world fame Les Clef D’or.

Club rooms at the Sheraton Addis are unusually spacious, luxuriously furnished and tastefully decorated.  Each room offers a comfortable environment for work or relaxation and features a wide variety of facilities and services.

]]> http://www.wayfaring.info/2011/02/20/sheraton-addis/feed/ 0 http://www.wayfaring.info/2009/06/10/lalibela-church/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lalibela-church http://www.wayfaring.info/2009/06/10/lalibela-church/#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:00:08 +0000 misha http://www.wayfaring.info/?p=10205

This is the church of St. George located in Lalibela, Ethiopia. I would say that this the most incredible rock church on Earth. The whole structure was carved and chiselled from a single piece rock, a structure which itself had to be isolated from the mass of rock that now surrounds it.

This is the most well known and last built of the eleven churches in Lalibela area. The church has been referred to as the “Eighth Wonder of the World“. The dimensions of the complex are 25 meters by 25 meters by 30 meters, and there is a small baptismal pool outside the church, which stands in an artificial trench.

As of 2006, Lalibela is still a pilgrimage site for members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The church itself is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela”.

The Rastafari Exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington features art and artifacts from the Jamaican- born sculpture. ‘’Bob Marley, ganja and dreadlocks are still here’’ said Edward Rothstein.

Edward also explained that most of us know Rastafari only through these popular manifestations. But what is really Rastafari? Is it a religion? A way of life? A kind of movement? So all of the above, as ‘’Discovering Rastafari’’ displays.

The exhibition tells the story of the local folk religion that began before 80 years with the main belief- Haile Selassie – the 20^th- century Ethiopian emperor was the living God, the Black Messiah.

The Rastafari beliefs grew out of a particular experience which is slavery and its aftermath in Jamaica, also a view of how that suffering might be overcome. In this case, ordeal was relieved by a hope adapted from the biblical dream of Zion, that someday blacks might return to a land from which they were exiled: Ethiopia.”

‘’These ideas were amplified by the charismatic, Jamaican-born black leader Marcus Garvey, who urged all blacks to see themselves in a common struggle,” writes Rothstein. “When Ethiopia’s prince regent, Tafari Makonnen, who had the honorific title ‘Ras,’ was crowned emperor of Ethiopia, Garvey called on his followers to join together and ‘lift up the hand of Emperor Ras Tafari.

During the years Rastafari belief starts to seem almost sunny. Actually, the history is far darker. Rastafari belief developed partly out of resentment, not just against whites, but against the black middle-class culture of Jamaica. This was one reason the once-disreputable styles of dreadlocks and the ceremonial smoking of marijuana became so important.

Ethiopia is a country with deep connections with Jerusalem, because of the Judaism and Ethiopian Christianity which combines belief in the Holy Trinity with myths and symbols of the Old Testament. In some Ethiopian rites is still used the 2, 500-year-old language.

These days half of Ethiopia’s 70 million people are Orthodox Christians. For decades, however the access to historic sites of Ethiopia had been banned in general because of the war and the vagaries of politics. Over the next seven years mostly humanitarian aid workers, diplomats and journalists trickled into Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia the capital income is $120 a year. The country was among the first societies in sub-Saharan Africa to develop a written language.

Under President Zinawi,who has begun to show some dictatorial tendencies of his own, significant development has come to Ethiopia including cell phones, hotels, Internet cafes, reliable electricity and asphalt-roads things that were unheard of in the outlying provinces a decade ago.

And it is now possible to travel across the country to some extent of comfort.

The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Africa is surrounded of nature and cultural diversity. The structure is surrounded of nature and cultural diversity. The structure’s design quietly supports security while placing emphasis on experience, encounter and efficiency.

Architects integrate the embassy building very precisely into the beautiful landscape. The building is surrounded by a dense eucalyptus grove. Combined with highly insulated concrete walls, floors and ceilings, the orientation captures natural solar and thermal processes to heat, cool and ventilate, minimizing dependence on mechanical systems.

The Royal Netherlands Embassy design has been honored with a 2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. The award recognizes distinguished architecture that encourages social development, restoration, re-use and environmental responsibility in the Islamic world.