Art depicting the Ras Dashen Mountains in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
The Inscription says:
Rosetti
Aba-9XVII

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/rossetti_dante_gabriel.html

Could Gabriel Dante Rosetti (1828-1882)have ever been in Ethiopia? It looks like his style including the model and presentation. Who ever painted this would have needed to have an intimate knowledge of the Ras Dashen Mountains, Ethiopian “Gelada” Baboon as well as canyonlands of this virtually unknown region of Africa.

Does anyone recognize this art work? I found it falling apart on a wall in a ancient colonial era hotel in Addis Abba, Ethiopia. I added the waterfalls myself.

It represents for me “ideal beauty”. “Beautiful people in beautiful places www.canyonsworldwide.org is my byline and life’s story. Perhaps as the artwork is not preserved and goes unnoticed, it will soon disappear from this world. It represents a lost persons spirit and passion. Who ever painted this knew Ethiopia and the Ras Dashen mountains, canyons and wild life. It is romantic in nature but true in sprit. I would like to find who may have painted it originally.

The Gelada Baboon is painted very accurately as well. http://www.selamta.net/Gelada%20baboon.htm

It would be a shame if it were lost….

Next we flew to Aksum which is the center of tourism for the Tegray Province. We were able to photograph the new dam on the Takeze River, which was a great mystery concerning the roads and access into the area. I told the local authorities that as my name was “Fisher” I want to start the first fishing guide operation on the new lake.  They were so suppressed by such a novel idea that they did not know whether to take me seriously. But none the less I could still not find directions to the road to the new dam from anyone including the official government roads department and the tourism departments. This all remains a mystery to this very day. Maybe this is the only picture ever published of the new dam?

The new dam on the Tekeze River: first published photo for adventure tourist?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tekez%C3%A9_River

The Tekezé River is a major river of Ethiopia, and forms a section the westernmost border of Ethiopia and Eritrea for part of its course. The river is also known as the Setit in Eritrea, western Ethiopia, and eastern Sudan. According to materials published by the Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency, the Tekezé River is 608 kilometers long.< href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tekez%C3%A9_River#cite_note-0″ target=_blank>[1] The canyon which it has created is the deepest in Africa and one of the deepest in the world, at some points having a depth of over 2000 meters

http://www.waterpowermagazine.com/story.asp?storyCode=2052913

Hydro power in Ethiopia – the staged construction of Tekeze Arch Dam
11 May 2009

Upon completion at the end of February 2009, the Tekeze Concrete Arch Dam in Ethiopia became the highest dam on the African Continent. Here James R Stevenson and Mihret Debebe provide further details of the staged construction and filling sequence for the dam, while summarizing and updating the status of the power projects currently underway in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation. The Tekeze Dam is located on the Tekeze River in the Northern Tigre Region of Ethiopia. The Tekeze and Atabara Rivers originate in the Simien mountains of Ethiopia. Each of these Rivers are little known but are key tributaries to the 6650km long Nile River. They are also separate from the White and Blue Nile tributaries. Since ancient times, the Nile has supported the many civilizations that surround it. The Blue Nile combined with th Tekeze/Atabara Rivers provide most of the water and silt in their seasonal runs to the Nile. Most of the rainfall (89%) arrives with the East African Monsoon during the months of July, August, and September.

Also please see for more:

http://www.paddlermagazine.com/destinations/destination-articles/paddling-ethiopias-tekeze-gorge.html

and comments by Pasquale Scaturro, leader of the first descent of the Tekeze river:

http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/sportspeakers/printerbio.php?speaker_id=6166

Old meets new on the soon to be paved road out of Axum Ethiopia.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/ethiopia/axum

The first bronze war statue I have ever seen that is holding a communications device and not a weapon. Welcome to the future, now!

Exploring the remains of the Ethiopian Civil War in 2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigray_Province And: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Civil_War
The Ethiopian Civil War began on September 12, 1974 when the Marxist Derg staged a coup d’état against Emperor Haile Selassie, and lasted until the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of rebel
groups, overthrew the government in 1991. The war overlapped other Cold War conflicts in Africa, such as the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002).

Here are the very last of the big trees in June 2010. In April 2002 this was part of the Simien Mountains National Park and a protected area for wildlife and and savanna grasslands forest.  No more.  Now it is a refugee resettlement area.  The poor people and the poor nature.  Future home of an extension of the Sahara desert?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ras_Dashen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ras Dashen (alternatively Ras Dashan or Ras Dejen Ge’ez  rās dāshen or rās dejen, Amh. “head guard”) is the highest mountain in Ethiopia. Part of Semien Mountains National Park, it reaches an elevation of 4,550 metres (14,928 ft). The more common form, “Ras Dashen” is a corruption of its Amharic name, “Ras Dejen”, used by the system of the Ethiopian Mapping Authority (EMA) which means “the general who fights in front of the Emperor”.[1] According to Erik Nilsson, Ras Dashen is the eastern peak of the rim of “an enormous volcano, the northern half of which is cut down abou thousand metres by numerous ravines, draining into the Takkazzi River.” Its western counterpart is Mount Biuat (4,510 meters), separated by the valley of the Meshaha river.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ras_Dashen#cite_note-Nilsson-13-0

Tirhas, our assistant guide and coffee maker with the local school teacher made us feel at home over night in the newly built school.

The mid level plateau foot hills of the Ras Dashen Mountains.

Tirhas, lady left, and her brother Michael (far right) were our wonderful guides from Aksum where on their first extreme adventure in the wilderness of the Ras Dashen Mountains.  Michael has a college level degree in Tour Guiding.
We highly recommend him as well as his sister Tirhas  for any guiding job in the Aksum or northern Tigray Ethiopian region.

mikeaxum@yahoo.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axum

Maria and Tirhas at our waterfalls goal deep in the Ras Dashen North Rim Canyonlands.

Exploring a side canyon of the Tekeze River. Here is a cave of cut through of an incised meander, a rare canyon feature.

Maria Gates greets a crowd of refugee children in the Tekeze resettlement camp.

Canyon beauty of the Tekeze River gorge.

Happy local farm children in the Tekeze River Gorge. Put your own caption here? No question they have their own unique styles!

This is Maria Gates photo done in photo shop by Richard D. Fisher.  He was overheard saying “I wish that photo was mine”. “It is a work of art”!

Red Jakal Tour Operator: Yohannes Assefa has a new fleet of comfort Toyota Land Cruisers. Master Tour Guide operator for all things Ethiopian.

info@redjackal.net
www.redjackal.net

Local Addis Ababa photography art. Enjoy the creativity as well as the famously beautiful Ethiopian woman!