Part 5 - The Monastic Centres of the Səmen Mountains andWägära

Summary

THE SƏMEN MOUNTAINS, the highest mountains in the Horn of Africa, areat present one of Ethiopia's main tourist attractions due to theirspectacular landscape and diverse wildlife. As the focal point, until theseventeenth century, of Betä Ǝsraʾel autonomy and ofthe Betä Ǝsraʾel–Solomonic wars, they were thescene of some of the most dramatic events in BetäƎsraʾel history. In the twentieth century, they enjoyedunparal-leled prestige as the last stronghold of BetäƎsraʾel monasticism. The most important BetäƎsraʾel centre in these mountains in recent generations andprobably also in the more distant past, a place commonly referred to by theBetä Ǝsraʾel community as “Səmen”and thus embodying the entire region, was SəmenMənaṭa.