Debre Tabor

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Debre Tabor skyline.jpg

Debre Tabor ( Amharic ደብረ ታቦር däbrä tabor ) is a city and woreda in northern Ethiopia . The city is located in the Debub Gondar zone of the Amhara region , about 100 kilometers southeast of Gonder and 50 kilometers east of Lake Tana . The name is Amharic and means Mount Tabor based on the biblical mountain. There are at least 48 springs around the city that contributed to the development of Debre Tabor.

According to the Central Statistical Agency , Debre Tabor had 39,052 inhabitants in 2005, including 20,078 men and 18,974 women. The woreda covers an area of ​​approximately 5.85 square kilometers, resulting in a population density of 6675.60 people per square kilometer.

Debre Tabor has an airport ( ICAO code: HADT, IATA code: DBT).

history

Debre Tabor was the Ethiopian capital under two emperors: Yohannes IV. And Theodor II. , Before this made Magdala the capital. As a result, the population of the city in the 19th century fluctuated between up to 30,000 in the presence of Emperor Yohannes and 5,000 people in his absence.

The experts do not agree on the circumstances of the city's foundation. Mordechai Abir states that it was founded by Ras Ali I , whereas Richard Pankhurst gives a detailed description of the foundation by Ras Gugsa and adds that according to tradition, the place of the foundation was found by means of unearthly help. It is certain that Debre Tabor was the seat of the emperor's regents in the 18th and 19th centuries. Several churches and the ruins of two palaces from that period have been preserved.

Debre Tabor was sacked in 1835 by an army from the Lasta province . The area around the city was the scene of the battle of Debre Tabor on February 6, 1842 , in which Dejazmach Wube Haile Mariam and his allies defeated the armies of Ras Ali II and sacked Debre Tabor again. However, while they were celebrating their victory, they were surprised by Birru Aligaz, an ally of Ras Ali; Wube and his son were taken prisoner. They were only released after concessions had been granted.

Ras Ali had four churches built in Debre Tabor: Iyasus on a mountain in the southeast, Ennatitu Mariam and Legitu Mariam in the east and Tegur Mikael in the north. He built another palace for his mother, the Empress Mennen Liben Amede , which was not as big as his own.

Web links

Commons : Debre Tabor  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CSA 2005 National Statistics ( Memento of July 31, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Table B.4
  2. ^ Richard PK Pankhurst: An Economic History of Ethiopia, 1800-1935 . Haile Selassie I University Press (Addis Ababa 1968), p. 694.
  3. ↑ Mordechai Abir: Ethiopia: Era of the Princes . Longmans (London 1968), p. 30.
  4. ^ Richard PK Pankhurst: History of Ethiopian Towns . Franz Steiner Verlag (Wiesbaden 1982), p. 265.
  5. ^ Pankhurst: Ethiopian Towns . P. 266.
  6. ↑ Abir: Era of Princes . Pages 111f; Pankhurst: Ethiopian Towns . P. 268.
  7. ^ Pankhurst: Ethiopian Towns , pp. 271ff.

Coordinates: 11 ° 51 '  N , 38 ° 1'  E