* * * Introducing H A R A R * * *

The ancient walled city of Harar was for many centuries a major commercial center. Trading with the Ethiopian, the Gulf of Aden ports, and many Eastern lands, it has its own language, Harari or gæeý-sinan, which was spoken only within its walls, and issued its own currency (Zaribat el Harar, the coinage of Harar). The city was moreover also a great center for Islamic learning. It was further more renowned for its remarkable handicrafts, notably its fine wavering and its beautifully-bound manuscripts. These were rated virtually without equal in the Islamic world.

Harar a city of mosques, minarets, and holy shrine, is also remembered, in Europe, as a city visited, in the mid-nineteenth century, by the British Orientalist, Richard Burton, translator of the Thousand and One Nights. The settlement was later the abode , a generation or so later, of the renowned French poet, Arthur Rimbaud.

Visitors to Harar should inspect the city's unique stone housing (Harari gæar), the colorful dress of the Harari's, and its stout old walls. These latter were built, in the mid-sixteen centuries, by one of Harar's government most notable princes, Amir Nur. Also worth a visit are the the city's two museums, colorful markets, and at night, the ''hyena man', who can be seen and photographed, feeding these animals (holding meat on his mouth! a unique relation between man and the hyena). The more adventures traveller should insist on drinking quti, a local drink, with or without milk, brewed from coffee leaves.

Excrursions from Harar, East from Harar is the Babille Elephant Sanctuary, close to a small town famous for its hot springs and the Babille 'Valley of Marvels'. The 6982km2 reserve is a sanctuary for a rare endemic sub-species of elephant, but is also home to black-maned lions, kudu and Wild ass.