Mekane Berhan (
Ge'ez: መካነ ብርሃን ''mekāne birhān'', "Place of light") is a town in northern
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
. Located in the
Semien Gondar Zone
North Gondar (Amharic: ሰሜን ጎንደር; or Semien Gondar) is a zone in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. This zone is named for the city of Gondar, the capital of Ethiopia until the mid-19th century.
Geography
North Gondar is bordered on the ...
of the
Amhara Region, Mekane Berhan has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of approximately 2900 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of
Jan Amora woreda
Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas ( am, ወረዳ; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''zones'' and the '' regional states''.
These districts are further subdivided into a number of ...
.
An all-weather road connects Mekane Berhan to
Debarq, which makes the town far more accessible than the rest of the woreda. The road's construction began in the late 1990s, and by 1999 85 kilometers had been completed; the remaining 20 kilometers were expected to be constructed the following year.
Mekane Berhan is best known as the location of the Derasge Mariam church where
Tewodros II
, spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"''
, alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.)
Tewodros II ( gez, ዳግማዊ ቴዎድሮስ, baptized as Gebre Kidan; 1818 – 13 April 1868) was Emperor of Ethiopi ...
was crowned emperor 11 February 1855. According to local tradition, following his victory over
Wube Haile Maryam
Wube Haile Maryam of Semien, (1799-1867), also called by his title ''Dejazmach'' Wube, Webé; his name is also given in European sources as ‘‘Ubie’’. Wube was one of the major figures of 19th century Ethiopia, during the closing decades o ...
he discovered that Wube had prepared the church for his coronation as
Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
and invited numerous dignitaries from all over Ethiopia, and since he planned on becoming Emperor, Tewodros decided not to let such elaborate preparations to waste and had himself crowned Emperor instead.
Dervla Murphy described her January 1967 visit to this town in her travel memoir ''
In Ethiopia with a Mule''.
Demographics
Based on figures from the
Central Statistical Agency
The Central Statistical Agency (CSA; Amharic: ማዕከላዊ ስታቲስቲክስ ኤጀንሲ) is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth ...
in 2005, this town has an estimated total population of 2,717, of whom 1,182 are men and 1,535 are women.
CSA 2005 National Statistics
, Table B.3 The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 1584, of whom 622 were men and 962 were women.
Notes
{{reflist
Populated places in the Amhara Region