UNESCO Heritage · Central Ethiopia
Tiya & Adadi Mariam
A single road south-west of Addis Ababa links three very different chapters of the past: the prehistoric site of Melka Kunture, the rock-hewn church of Adadi Mariam, and the carved stelae of Tiya, a World Heritage Site since 1980.
Why We Go
Carved stelae, a rock-hewn church and a million years of human tools — all south of the capital.
Melka Kunture, around fifty kilometres from the capital on the upper Awash River, is one of the most important prehistoric sites in East Africa, with a sequence of occupation stretching back more than a million years — including some of the earliest known use of obsidian for tools.
Further on, Adadi Mariam is one of the few rock-hewn churches in the south of the country. Local tradition credits it to the time of King Lalibela, and though it is far simpler than the churches that bear his name, it is still in use and rarely busy.
Tiya closes the day. Its field of standing stones, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1980, marks a burial ground whose builders remain uncertain; many of the stelae are carved with swords and symbols that have never been fully explained.
Highlights
- 01Tiya's stelae field — 36 monuments, 32 of them carved with swords and enigmatic symbols
- 02Adadi Mariam, a rock-hewn church 73 km from Addis, attributed by tradition to King Lalibela's era
- 03Melka Kunture, where obsidian tools more than 1.2 million years old have been found
- 04The upper Awash valley and the highland farmland in between
Best combined with a stay of 1 day, travelling October – May.
Journeys Including Tiya & Adadi Mariam
Routes that pass through here
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