Arrive Bole Airport by 0800 hrs. Meet at Arrival Gate.
Emergency phones: Yusuf +6012-2712955, Maxby +6012-2181396, Daniel +251912062769. On arrival in the morning have a coffee break in Addis. Then drive down the Great Rift Valley towards the Awash National park and head for the Muslim Walled City of Harar. Overnight Harar.
Harar, commonly known as Gey and titled the City of Saints, is a walled city in eastern Ethiopia. It is a UNESCO world heritage site on a plateau with deep gorges surrounded by deserts and savannah. The walls surrounding this sacred Muslim city were built between the 13th and 16th centuries. Harar Jugol, said to be the fourth holiest city of Islam, has 82 mosques, three of which date from the 10th century, and 102 shrines, but the townhouses with their exceptional interior design constitute the most spectacular part of Harar’s cultural heritage. The impact of African and Islamic traditions on the development of the town’s building types and urban layout make for its particular character and uniqueness. A special attraction of Harar is the mouth to mouth feeding of meat to wild Hyenas by hyena men of Harar. They dont just toss pieces of meat scraps to wild hyenas, but instead they place pieces of meat on a short stick, puts the stick in their mouths, and then lets a hyena get within inches of his face in order to snatch the meat with its powerful jaws. Hyenas are the largest predators in Africa next to lions .