Ethiopia has no shortage of enticements

By TONY WHEELER
Lonely Planet
The Ethiopia-equals-famine equation has been so ingrained it's almost a shock to discover there are probably more tourist attractions packed into this one country than anywhere else in Africa.
There are ancient monolithic stone churches in Lalibela that predate anything in Europe, a gigantic stele in Aksum that would tower over any Egyptian obelisk, the colorfully painted monasteries of Lake Tana and monks hand-painting illustrated manuscripts, just as their European counterparts did a thousand years ago.
After all that, it can hardly be a surprise that Ethiopia also boasts Africa's most distinctive cuisine.
From Addis Ababa, the sprawling capital city, the "historic route'' makes a big loop around the cultural highlights of the country. An alternative southern loop takes in the wildlife sightings more commonly associated with Africa.
Aksum, with its tombs, monasteries and churches, is one of Ethiopia's prime attractions, but it's the magnificent stelae that appear in most visitors' photographs. In 2005 the Italians finally returned the towering column Mussolini's troops had looted back in 1937, which for nearly 70 years had stood in Rome's Piazza di Porta Capena.
The churches of Lalibela, cut straight out of the rock, are an equally compelling sight. Said to be modeled on Jerusalem, the small town even features a River Jordan. Bet Giyorgis, the church of St. George, with its design in the shape of a Greek cross, is the most dramatic of the town's amazing collection because it appears to have been cut out vertically; your first sight of the structure is when it suddenly appears at your feet.
Between Aksum and Lalibela are plenty of opportunities to wander off the main route to sights such as the rock-cut churches of Tigray. At one stop or another, a priest or monk is sure to casually unwrap some age-old illustrated manuscript and open it to another view of St. George (Ethiopia's patron saint), expertly dispatching another ugly dragon while Brutawit, the dragon-threatened damsel in distress, looks on approvingly.
Despite this cornucopia of attractions, it's impossible to deny that this is also a threadbare country where life is hard. On the road in Ethiopia there are always people, striding out toward some distant destination with a steely determination that seems to deny their poverty.
This is also a country where the everyday trash of modern civilization simply does not exist. No mineral-water bottle is casually tossed aside, for example. When an Ethiopian child requests "Give me plastic,'' it has nothing to do with credit cards. She is simply hoping that you have an empty bottle, which can be recycled for any one of a thousand potential uses.
And the food! Every Ethiopian meal circles around a pancakelike disc of injera, the country's bread-potato-pasta equivalent. A dollop of meat stew known as wat, a spoonful of spicy sauce and a ladle of salad are all heaped on board, and you tear off chunks of injera to scoop up or soak up the toppings. There are no forks or spoons.
It's this basic foodstuff that also makes dining Ethiopian-style such a friendly, convivial affair because there's only one disc of injera per table. The more people, the bigger the circle.
It's hard not to be friendly when you're all sharing the same plate.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
www.chron.com