Experience the best of Harar

Harar Jugol, the old walled city, sits on a plateau at nearly 1,900 metres, enclosed by a wall largely completed in the sixteenth century and pierced by five historic gates. Inside, a maze of alleys passes more than eighty mosques and many shrines, and Harari houses with raised sitting platforms and colourful interiors. UNESCO added the walled city to its list in 2006, and local belief ranks Harar among the holiest cities of Islam.

The French poet Arthur Rimbaud lived and traded in Harar in the 1880s, and a house museum recalls him. At night, outside the walls, men feed wild spotted hyenas by hand, a custom of long standing. Dire Dawa, a railway city on the lowlands, lies below the plateau to the north-west.

Coffee grown in the Harar highlands is among Ethiopia's best-known beans, and cafés serve it strong in small cups. Spiced meat dishes, flatbread and fresh fruit from the highland farms fill the market, where the chewing of khat is part of daily life. The highland altitude keeps the days warm and the nights cool.