6 Days Tigray Churches and Danakil Depression

Day 01 Arrival and Addis Ababa City Tour          

You will meet our staff upon arrival from your international flight and after breakfast, begin your exploration of Addis Ababa with visits to some of the city’s most iconic historical, cultural, and religious sites. The day includes the following highlights:

• Entoto Maryam Church: Located on the Entoto Hills, this is one of the oldest Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo churches, built in 1877 by Emperor Menelik II. The church features traditional Ethiopian architecture with octagonal domes. Inside, you’ll find a collection of royal artifacts, including Emperor Menelik II and Empress Taytu’s crowns, ceremonial garments, their royal bed, and a mirror gifted to the Empress by Queen Victoria.
• Entoto Hills: At an elevation of 2,900 meters above sea level, the Entoto Hills offer a stunning panoramic view of Addis Ababa. This area, once the capital before the city moved to its current location, holds great historical and spiritual significance.
• Ethnological Museum: Situated within the main campus of Addis Ababa University, this museum is housed in the former palace of Emperor Haile Selassie. It offers a deep insight into Ethiopia’s diverse cultures, with exhibits covering anthropology, music, and traditional life. It is also recognized as the first university museum in Ethiopia.
• National Museum of Ethiopia: One of the most important museums in sub-Saharan Africa, it showcases Ethiopia’s rich archaeological heritage. Here, you will find the world-famous fossil remains of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis), as well as Selam, a remarkably complete child hominid fossil estimated to be 3.3 million years old.
• Merkato: Conclude your day with a visit to Africa’s largest open-air market. Established during the Italian occupation in the late 1930s, Merkato spans several square miles and hosts over 7,000 businesses. It offers a dynamic experience of the city’s daily life, where you can find everything from spices and textiles to handmade crafts and electronics.

Overnight Aya Addis hotel Addis Ababa

Day 02 Fly Addis Ababa to Semera and drive to Ahmed Ella

This day after breakfast you will be taken to the airport for your flight to Semera. You will meet upon arrival and drive to Afdera it is used for salt extraction. It is named after the saline Lake Afdera, located in the southern part of the Afar Depression. It is a major source of salt extraction in Ethiopia, where the Lake water is pumped to saltpans for solar evaporation. After lunch we will drive to Ahmed Ella visiting beautiful landscape of solidified lava, rock, sand and occasional palm lined oasis after you pass several small hamlets start visiting Ahmad Ella village total population of more than 500 people to see the life style of the local Afar people. Finally, precede to Salt Lake Asale a huge salty lake where you will swim in a natural pool while enjoying sunset reflections of the salty ground.

Overnight camping at Ahmed Ella

Day 03 Visit Dallol Then Drive to Erta Ale

Morning tour Drive to Ragad (Asebo), the place where the localities are mining salt. Look the activity of breaking the salt from the ground, cutting in to rectangular pieces and loading on camels. You drive ahead to Dallol and visit the difference landscape formed by volcanic activity (125 meter below sea level, one of the lowest and hottest places in the world) colorful salts mining and different terrestrial places formed by volcanic activity like bubbling oily lake creates a different experience of your trip. Then we back to Ahmad Ella for lunch then proceed to Erta Ale. We spend the night watching the dramatic action of the boiling lava. Erta Ale ranks one of the most alluring and physically challenging natural attractions anywhere in Ethiopia. It is a shield volcano with a base diameter of 30 km and 1km square caldera at its summit. Erta Ale contains the world’s only permanent lava lake. Erta Ale is 613 meters, with a lava lake, one of only five in the world, at the summit. It is notable for being the longest existing lava lake, present since the early years of the twentieth century.

Overnight camping at Erta Ale

Day 04 Drive Erta Ale to Hawzen via Mekelle

After Breakfast we will drive to Hawzen via Mekelle. On the way will visit the

Church of Abreha wa Atsbeha, was built in East Tigray around 15 km from Wukro, Cut from a single mountain rock between 335 and 340 AD by the two famous twin-brothers kings Ezana and Sayzana, later on, named Abraha and Atsbeha, this is one of the several hundreds of important rock churches in Tigrai. Their bodies are claimed to be entombed in the church. At one time the church served as a monastery but now operates as a parish church the ceiling was blackened by soot due to Queen Gudit setting a fire in the building nine centuries earlier.

Overnight Vision Hotel Hawzen

Day 05 Climb Abuna Yemata Guh Church & drive to Axum

This day after breakfast you will visit the church of

Abuna Yemata Guh. It is a monolithic church dating from the sixth century and dedicated to Abuna Yemata, one of the nine Syrian saints. The interior reveals many religious paintings, very well preserved and many religious books dating from the 13-14th century. The paintings of a few centuries younger are intact and paint the arrival of Christianity in Ethiopia in the fourth century. It is situated at a height of 2,580 meters and has to be climbed on foot to reach. The 360 ​​degree view of the surroundings is amazing. Later drive to Axum on the way you will visit

Yeha Temple, also known as the Great Temple of Yeha, is one of the most important and oldest archaeological sites in Ethiopia. Date of Construction Believed to be built around 700 BCE (8th century BCE) with Cultural Affiliation of Pre-Aksumite civilization (linked to the Sabean culture of South Arabia) and materially carefully cut and polished limestone blocks (dry stone masonry, without mortar)

Overnight Sabean Hotel Axum

Day 06 Fly Axum to Addis Ababa

After breakfast you will visit Axum a city more than 2500 years of history, once the center of a great empire and ancient civilization, home of the original Ark of covenants. Axum is the prime historical site in the north of Ethiopia. Take a city tour that includes:-

The Church of Saint Mary of Zion and the religious complex the sanctuary Chapel which is the repository of the ‘Ark of covenant’

The coronation yard, Stele Park

Tomb of Kaleb and his son Gebre Meskel

Ezana’s Inscriptions

Queen of Sheba’s Bath, Queen of Sheba’s palace ruins and Axum Museum, Later drive to airport your flight to Addis Ababa End of Service.