Located in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of 09°32′N 39°48′E / 9.533°N 39.800°E / 9.533; 39.800 with an elevation of 1805 meters above sea level.

[2] Charles Johnston, who passed through this settlement 31 May 1841, described it as "perched upon a flat-topped isolated rock that, nearly at right angles with the road, juts across the upper end of a pretty little valley".

[4] Aliyu Amba owed its importance to its location on the caravan route that stretched from Saqqa in the Gibe region at its western point to Harar in the east and Tadjoura on the Red Sea.

[6] This town was also an important center of the amoleh trade in the 1830s, and Mordechai Abir notes that a 10 per cent duty on all sales rendered to the Shewan government 3,000 Maria Theresa Thalers in cash and the equivalent of 2,000 in kind.

It was not until 1990 that a road 16 kilometers in length was built to connect Aliyu Amba with Ankober by Lutheran organizations and the Mekane Yesus Church with the help of local workers.