Ginir
Ginir (also transliterated Ghinnir) is a town in southeastern Ethiopia. Located in the East Bale Zone of the Oromia Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of 7.13333°N, 40.7°W and an elevation between 1750 and 1986 meters above sea level.
Ginir is the administrative center of Ginir district and East Bale Zone. It is served by an airport.
In the 19th century, Ginir was the major commercial center southwest of the Awash River. Not only was it where salt was sold to traders who then supplied the districts south of Shewa, but it was the beginning of a trade route that reached south to Luuq (in modern-day Somalia) and beyond to Bardera. When the American Arthur Donaldson Smith was exploring the upper reaches of the Shebelle River in October 1894, he found that the local Ethiopian governor, Ras Wolde Guebre, had made Ginir his headquarters and had installed a garrison of about 200 men. A post route by mule from Addis Ababa to Ginir existed in 1904, one of the few places in southern Ethiopia with that kind of service at that time. A post office was opened within the period 1923-1932; a postal cancellation is known from 1928.
Despite this early economic activity, when C.W. Gwynn visited Ginir in 1908 it had declined since Donaldson Smith's time: "It should be a considerable market for salt, obtained in the district between the Wabi and Web, and also for ivory; but it had been used of recent years as a jumping-off place for raids against the Ogaden, and traders were afraid to venture there. The main traffic is the lucrative, though illicit, trade in arms." During the previous year, governor Dejazmach Lul Seged had clashed with the Italian garrison at Luuq and two Italian officers were killed; at the Italian government's insistence the Dejazmach had been removed from his post, but his retinue "looted the neighbourhood, and the garrison established by the new governor extorted what little was left for their immediate wants."
Ginir is the administrative center of Ginir district and East Bale Zone. It is served by an airport.
In the 19th century, Ginir was the major commercial center southwest of the Awash River. Not only was it where salt was sold to traders who then supplied the districts south of Shewa, but it was the beginning of a trade route that reached south to Luuq (in modern-day Somalia) and beyond to Bardera. When the American Arthur Donaldson Smith was exploring the upper reaches of the Shebelle River in October 1894, he found that the local Ethiopian governor, Ras Wolde Guebre, had made Ginir his headquarters and had installed a garrison of about 200 men. A post route by mule from Addis Ababa to Ginir existed in 1904, one of the few places in southern Ethiopia with that kind of service at that time. A post office was opened within the period 1923-1932; a postal cancellation is known from 1928.
Despite this early economic activity, when C.W. Gwynn visited Ginir in 1908 it had declined since Donaldson Smith's time: "It should be a considerable market for salt, obtained in the district between the Wabi and Web, and also for ivory; but it had been used of recent years as a jumping-off place for raids against the Ogaden, and traders were afraid to venture there. The main traffic is the lucrative, though illicit, trade in arms." During the previous year, governor Dejazmach Lul Seged had clashed with the Italian garrison at Luuq and two Italian officers were killed; at the Italian government's insistence the Dejazmach had been removed from his post, but his retinue "looted the neighbourhood, and the garrison established by the new governor extorted what little was left for their immediate wants."
Map - Ginir
Map
Country - Ethiopia
Flag of Ethiopia |
Anatomically modern humans emerged from modern-day Ethiopia and set out to the Near East and elsewhere in the Middle Paleolithic period. Southwestern Ethiopia has been proposed as a possible homeland of the Afroasiatic language family. In 980 BCE, the Kingdom of D'mt extended its realm over Eritrea and the northern region of Ethiopia, while the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region for 900 years. Christianity was embraced by the kingdom in 330, and Islam arrived by the first Hijra in 615. After the collapse of Aksum in 960, a variety of kingdoms, largely tribal confederations, existed in the land of Ethiopia. The Zagwe dynasty ruled the north-central parts until being overthrown by Yekuno Amlak in 1270, inaugurating the Ethiopian Empire and the Solomonic dynasty, claimed descent from the biblical Solomon and Queen of Sheba under their son Menelik I. By the 14th century, the empire grew in prestige through territorial expansion and fighting against adjacent territories; most notably, the Ethiopian–Adal War (1529–1543) contributed to fragmentation of the empire, which ultimately fell under a decentralization known as Zemene Mesafint in the mid-18th century. Emperor Tewodros II ended Zemene Mesafint at the beginning of his reign in 1855, marking the reunification and modernization of Ethiopia.
Currency / Language
ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
---|---|---|---|
ETB | Ethiopian birr | Br | 2 |
ISO | Language |
---|---|
AM | Amharic language |
EN | English language |
OM | Oromo language |
SO | Somali language |
TI | Tigrinya language |