ምቅ37382, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This African city is the capital of the 2nd most populous nation on the vast African continent. Ethiopia has a population estimated at 121-million as of July, 2022. Addis Ababa is not just the capital of Ethiopia, but it also serves as the de facto political capital of the continent. This fast-growing city is home to the headquarters of the African Union.
Addis Ababa is the largest city in Ethiopia with an estimated population of over 5-million as of 2021. This city occupies 527 square kilometres, just shy of the 600 square kilometres occupied by cities like Toronto and Seoul, in Canada and South Korea respectively.
Ethiopia’s economy is growing at a fast rate averaging 9.78% per year between 2010 and 2019. This has resulted in a boom for the capital city, Addis Ababa. Office towers, apartment blocks, and shopping centres are springing up all over the city.
In 2015, the first light rail system in sub-Saharan Africa opened in Addis Ababa. There are two lines – Blue and Green. The two lines overlap for 2.7 kilometres in a common section where 5 stops are shared.
The Blue Line was first to open in September 2015 and consists of 22 stops over 16.9 kilometres. The Green Line opened in November 2015 and consists of 22 stops over 17.4 kilometres.
In all, the LRT system consists of 39 unique stops when factoring the 5 shared stops. There are ongoing plans to expand this very-popular system which currently attracts over 150,000 riders each day.
Addis Ababa is a beautiful, peaceful, and clean city where the people are warm and friendly. The city has numerous coffee shops as Ethiopia is known for coffee. If the Ethiopian coffee found in Toronto, Canada is any indication, the coffee in Addis must be incredible.
Speaking of incredible, Ethiopian cuisine is delicious and healthy. I absolutely love injera bread with tibs (lamb or beef). Vegetarian dishes with injera are so very tasty, you don’t miss meat at all. The first time I ate this, I realized that becoming a vegetarian would not be difficult for me.
From what I hear, the climate in Addis Ababa is beautiful. I really want to visit this beautiful land someday. Actually, I will visit this African city one day, sooner rather than later.