Adigrat

Adigrat (Tigrinya: ዓዲግራት pronunciationⓘ, ʿaddigrat, also called ʿAddi Grat) is a city and separate woreda in Tigray Region of Ethiopia.

It is located in the Misraqawi Zone at longitude and latitude 14°16′N 39°27′E / 14.267°N 39.450°E / 14.267; 39.450, with an elevation of 2,457 metres (8,061 ft) above sea level and below a high ridge to the west.

[6][7] Adigrat became the center of the Tigrayan chief, dejazmach Kafle Wahid, the viceroy of atse Fasilides during the first half of the 17th century.

[8] Adigrat emerged as the political capital of Tigray when dejazmach Sabagadis Woldu of Agame assumed the governorship of the region in the period 1822-30.

Adigrat was an important market center for salt, which was mined in the Afar districts of Areho and Berale in eastern Tigray.

The Italians introduced the first elements of modern infrastructure, including stronger fortresses, restaurants, residential houses, a health center, schools, roads, piped water, an electric generator, etc.

Anthony Mockler notes that despite the fact the young Ras shook Ethiopian morale, "this was the first and last open defection to the Italians of an important noble and his men.

[13] Adigrat was captured by rebels in the Woyane rebellion 25 September 1943, forcing the Ethiopian government administrators to flee to neighboring Eritrea.

[14] Under the Derg business licenses became progressively more difficult to get, and traders' trucks were requisitioned for the transport of war-related materials to army bases in Eritrea.

Permits of travel were required; convoys were introduced by 1976; and the road links to Asmara were virtually broken, largely by the ELF, by the late 1970s.

During the first years of the Ethiopian Civil War, the fledgling Tigrayan People's Liberation Front drew support from these groups.

The same day that the Third Revolutionary Army was crushed at Battle of Shire, 19 February 1989, government troops and officials evacuated Adigrat.

During the 2020-2021 Tigray War, attacks were carried out on Adigrat by the joint Ethiopian and Eritrean armies, including aerial bombardments.

On 19 December 2020, an EEPA report stated that 16 civilians were killed while trying to stop Eritrean and ENDF soldiers from robbing the Addis Pharmaceutical Factory.

Gunda Gunde is an Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo monastery located to the south of Adigrat in the Misraqawi (Eastern) Zone of the northern Tigray Region in Ethiopia.

Abuna Yemata Guh is a monolithic church located in the Hawzen woreda of the Tigray Region south west of Adigrat.

In town are the remnants of two castles from the Zemene Mesafint ("Era of the Princes"), one owned by Dej Desta, the other by the Ras Sebhat Aregawi.

[13] Based on the 2007 national census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this town had a total population of 57,588, of whom 26,010 were male and 31,578 female.

Surrounded by a range of mountains (the peak of which is Alaqwa), Adigrat held a strategic position at the junction of the crossroads between Adwa in the west, Asmara and Massawa in the north and Mekelle in the south.

Adigrat was interconnected with the prominent trade routes linking Tigray and the Red Sea, on the one hand, and such old market-towns as Adwa, Hawzen, Antalo and Mekelle, on the other.

Street scene.
Adigrat Chirkos Church
Adigrat downtown