Interesting facts about Ethiopia

Here are a few facts we found interesting:

1. Did you know that the oldest human skeleton was found in Ethiopia. "Selam" is a skeleton of a 3 year old girl that carbon dates back 3.3 million years. Also, the famous skeleton of "Lucy" was discovered in Ethiopia and remains there still today.

2. Ethiopia still uses the Julian calander which has 13 months and is almost 8 years behind our Gregorian calendar (they just celebrated the new milenium Sept. 11th this year).

3. Ethiopia is the birth place of coffee, whose origins trace back over 1000 years to the Ethiopian city of Caffa.

4. Did you know that a large portion of the Ethiopian population claims descent from King Solomon of Jerusalem and Makeda, the queen of Sheba (an Ethiopian queen)? And that they converted to Judaism after the son of Makeda was born, and claim that the final resting place of the Ark of the covenant is at a chapel in the holy city of Aksum.

5. Did you know that, for many years, Ethiopa's rulers were female? And that Alexander the Great stopped in his conquest at the border of Ethiopia because he did not want to be defeated by the woman ruling at the time.

6. Did you know that, in contrast to what we think of when we imagine Ethiopia, it is a land full of lush green pastures, forests, and lakes? And that it has one of the world's tallest waterfalls, and is the source of the blue nile?

7. The Jamaican rastafarian movement originated in Ethiopia. Some Jamaicans believe that former emporer Haile Selassie (born as Tafari Makonnen and later called Ras "leader" Tafari) was God incarnate based upon his status as the only African leader of an independent nation in the 1930's. Currently 10% of Jamaicans consider themselves Rastafarians.

8. Ethiopia is one of the worlds oldest nations and the second most populated country in Africa.