Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tigray's second-largest town is situated on what was Ethiopia's most important junction
with Eritrea before the border was closed. Adigrat's a humdrum place and mostly used as
a lunch-stop on the way from Aksum to Hawzien or Mekele. But if you're filling in time,
strolling the cobblestone backstreets south of the piazza is very enjoyable; though the
scarcity of visitors, plus the fact that many people are paranoid about Eritrean terrorists,
means you need to be sensitive about photography.
Sights & Activities
Two 20th-century churches are worth a look. The fortress-like
Golgota Medhane Alem
was built in 1978 and
Holy Saviour Catholic Cathedral
went up in 1969. Both feature
paintings by the famous artists Tekle Afewerk, but are usually closed. The labyrinth of tin
shacks that's now the
market
is 500m east of Golgota Medhane Alem church.
The
original cathedral
is on a hill above town, 5km northeast of the piazza in the Don
Bosco compound. Below it is a tidy
Italian war cemetery
. The serrated wall you see be-
hind the 'Welcome' gate of the army camp halfway to Don Bosco is an old
Italian Fort-
ress
, but you're definitely not welcome to visit or photograph it.
You can also do
community trekking
from here; see the Trekking Tigray boxed text on
Sleeping & Eating
Hohoma Hotel $
( 0344-452469; d/ste Birr150/200)
The onsite owner ensures this is one of the
cleanest budget hotels in Ethiopia. She's a fine cook too and many locals told us Hohoma
is one of the few places in Adigrat that makes a good
tihlo
(barley balls dipped in a spicy
sauce).
HOTEL
Eve Hotel $
( 0344-451120; d/tw/ste Birr253/345/460; )
This wannabe smart hotel in the centre
of town charges around 100% mark-up for
faranji
, but unusually this is more a matter of
the
habesha
prices being lower than expected: all things considered the large rooms with
satellite TV offer okay value. The restaurant (mains Birr46 to Birr75) is expensive, but
they actually know how to cook
faranji
food, which makes it the lunch-stop of choice for
nearly every tour company passing through.
HOTEL
