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Dire Dawa
Dire Dawa (Oromo: Dirree Dhawaa, lit. 'Place of Remedy'; Somali: Diridhaba, meaning "where the Dir hit his spear into the ground" or "The true Dir", Amharic: ድሬዳዋ, Harari: ዲርሬዳዋ, lit. "Plain of Medicine") is a city in eastern Ethiopia near the Oromia Region and Oromo border and one of two chartered cities in Ethiopia (the other being Addis Ababa, the capital). Dire Dawa alongside present-day Sitti Zone were a part of the Dire Dawa autonomous region of the Somali Region stipulated in the 1987 Ethiopian Constitution until 1993 when it was split by the federal government into a separately administered chartered city.
It is divided administratively into two woredas, the city proper and the non-urban woredas of Gurgura.
Dire Dawa lies in the eastern part of the nation, on the Dechatu River, at the foot of a ring of cliffs. The western outskirts of the city lie on the Gorro River, a tributary of the Dechatu River. It is located at the latitude and longitude of 9°36′N 41°52′E / 9.600°N 41.867°E. The city is an industrial centre, home to several markets and the Dire Dawa Airport.
The projected population for 2015 was 440,000 for the entire chartered city and 277,000 for the city proper, making the latter the second largest city in Ethiopia.
The region was already inhabited in Mesolithic times, as revealed by rock paintings and Middle Stone Age artifacts in the cave of Porc-Épic and Laga-Oda only a few kilometers from Dire Dawa. The area surrounding Dire Dawa is believed to have been a settlement of the extinct Harla people.
Historically, the area used to be part of Adal Sultanate during the medieval times. During the 17th century onwards, the region was considered the domain of the Emirate of Harar until Menelik's conquest of the kingdom in 1887 and consequently became incorporated into modern Ethiopia from thereon.
The present-day town of Dire Dawa (327 km by rail from Djibouti), however, is of very recent origin. It owes its foundation to a technical problem: when it became impossible to lay the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway via Harar because of the steep access to the town, Emperor Menelik II accepted (in a letter dated 5 November 1896) that the first part of the line might finish at a village at the foot of the mountains, which should be named Addis Harar ("New Harrar"). The railway reached this location on 24 December 1902, a date which may be considered the day of Dire Dawa's foundation. The new name, however, did not win recognition.
For financial and diplomatic reasons the railway was not continued until 1909 and the final inauguration of the whole line from Djibouti to Addis Ababa-again delayed by the revolution of 1916-only took place on 7 June 1917. During all this time, Dire Dawa was practically the town profited much and became a "boom city", attracting most of the trade which formerly passed through Harar. By 1902 the Ethiopian government, anticipating the future economic importance of Dire Dawa, had already transferred the customs station for trade with the Red Sea from Gildessa to Dire Dawa.
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Dire Dawa
Dire Dawa (Oromo: Dirree Dhawaa, lit. 'Place of Remedy'; Somali: Diridhaba, meaning "where the Dir hit his spear into the ground" or "The true Dir", Amharic: ድሬዳዋ, Harari: ዲርሬዳዋ, lit. "Plain of Medicine") is a city in eastern Ethiopia near the Oromia Region and Oromo border and one of two chartered cities in Ethiopia (the other being Addis Ababa, the capital). Dire Dawa alongside present-day Sitti Zone were a part of the Dire Dawa autonomous region of the Somali Region stipulated in the 1987 Ethiopian Constitution until 1993 when it was split by the federal government into a separately administered chartered city.
It is divided administratively into two woredas, the city proper and the non-urban woredas of Gurgura.
Dire Dawa lies in the eastern part of the nation, on the Dechatu River, at the foot of a ring of cliffs. The western outskirts of the city lie on the Gorro River, a tributary of the Dechatu River. It is located at the latitude and longitude of 9°36′N 41°52′E / 9.600°N 41.867°E. The city is an industrial centre, home to several markets and the Dire Dawa Airport.
The projected population for 2015 was 440,000 for the entire chartered city and 277,000 for the city proper, making the latter the second largest city in Ethiopia.
The region was already inhabited in Mesolithic times, as revealed by rock paintings and Middle Stone Age artifacts in the cave of Porc-Épic and Laga-Oda only a few kilometers from Dire Dawa. The area surrounding Dire Dawa is believed to have been a settlement of the extinct Harla people.
Historically, the area used to be part of Adal Sultanate during the medieval times. During the 17th century onwards, the region was considered the domain of the Emirate of Harar until Menelik's conquest of the kingdom in 1887 and consequently became incorporated into modern Ethiopia from thereon.
The present-day town of Dire Dawa (327 km by rail from Djibouti), however, is of very recent origin. It owes its foundation to a technical problem: when it became impossible to lay the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway via Harar because of the steep access to the town, Emperor Menelik II accepted (in a letter dated 5 November 1896) that the first part of the line might finish at a village at the foot of the mountains, which should be named Addis Harar ("New Harrar"). The railway reached this location on 24 December 1902, a date which may be considered the day of Dire Dawa's foundation. The new name, however, did not win recognition.
For financial and diplomatic reasons the railway was not continued until 1909 and the final inauguration of the whole line from Djibouti to Addis Ababa-again delayed by the revolution of 1916-only took place on 7 June 1917. During all this time, Dire Dawa was practically the town profited much and became a "boom city", attracting most of the trade which formerly passed through Harar. By 1902 the Ethiopian government, anticipating the future economic importance of Dire Dawa, had already transferred the customs station for trade with the Red Sea from Gildessa to Dire Dawa.
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