Ankober (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Ankober is a town in central Ethiopia and one of the capitals of the former kingdom of Shewa. Located in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region, Ankober is perched on the eastern escarpment of the Ethiopian Highlands 40 kilometers to the east of Debre Birhan, with a latitude and longitude of 9 34 N 39 54 E / 9.567 N 39.9 E / 9.567; 39.9Coordinates: 9 34 N 39 54 E / 9.567 N 39.9 E / 9.567; 39.9, and an approximate elevation of about 2465 meters. The gravel road between Ankober and Debre Berhan, 42 kilometers in length, was overhauled in May 2009. Buildings that survive from the Shewa period include the Kidus Mikael church, built by Sahle Selassie. According to Philip Briggs, all that survives of Menelik's palace, which he had built on the site of his father's palace, is "one long stone-and-mortar wall measuring some 1.5m high." Briggs comments that it is "difficult to say why this one wall should have survived virtually intact when the rest of the palace crumbled into virtual oblivion." Ankober is also known as where the endemic Ankober Serin was first observed by ornithologists in 1979.