Yechila (also Yechilay or Chilay) 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

Maekelay Zone The Central Zone () is a zone in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Towns and cities in the Central Zone include Axum and Adwa, as well as the historically significant village of Yeha and the town of Tembien Abiyi Adi. The Central Zone is bordered o ...

of the

Tigray Region The Tigray Region, officially the Tigray National Regional State, is the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob, and Kunama people. Its capital and largest city is Mekelle. Tigray is ...

, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1571 meters above sea level. It is located in the Mearey- tabia and is the administrative center of

Abergele Abergele (; ; ) is a market town and community, situated on the north coast of Wales between the holiday resorts of Colwyn Bay and Rhyl, in Conwy County Borough and in the historic county of Denbighshire. Its northern suburb of Pensarn lies on ...

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 ...

. Records provided at the Nordic Africa Institute website mention a rock-hewn church dedicated to

Abuna Aregawi Abuna Aregawi (also called Za-Mika'el Aragawi) was a sixth-century Syrian monk and canonized by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, as well as by the Ethiopian Catholic Church, as well as the Eritrean Orthodox Church. He is one of the Nine ...

in the town. The British explorer Henry Salt camped overnight outside this town during his second journey through Ethiopia in 1809. Salt (who calls the settlement "Shela") records entering the province of Abergele the next day -- apparently the town was not part of the province at the time -- as well as finding a species of

water cress Watercress or yellowcress (''Nasturtium officinale'') is a species of aquatic flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. Watercress is a rapidly growing perennial plant native to Europe and Asia. It is one of the oldest known leaf ve ...

growing in the area. 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, Yechila has an estimated total population of 2,833 of whom 1,371 are men and 1,462 are women.CSA 2005 National Statistics
Table B.4 The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 1,556 of whom 697 were men and 859 were women.

Notes

Populated places in the Tigray Region {{Tigray-geo-stub