IN THE CRADLE OF MANKIND

Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent country and with the growing population of some 100 million people it is the second largest in terms of population. During its history it has never been colonised, apart from a five-year occupation by Mussolini’s Italy. It has a unique cultural heritage, being the home to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, one of the oldest Christian churches, and a monarchy that ended only in the coup of 1974. The world’s most well-known fossil, Lucy, an Australopithecus afarensis, was discovered in a shallow Ethiopian stream bed in 1974, completely rewriting the human history. Ethiopia is a land of tough life, captivating nature and a proud smiling people.