Located in the North Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region, it's perched on the eastern escarpment of the Ethiopian Highlands at an elevation of about 2,465 meters (8,100 ft).

It remained the principal residence of the rulers of Shewa until Negus (later Emperor) Menelik II moved it to Mount Entoto in 1878, although Wossen Seged preferred to live at Qundi during his reign.

[6] The first Europeans to record their visit to Ankober were the Evangelical missionaries Carl Wilhelm Isenberg and Johann Ludwig Krapf in 1839.

In the following years, a steady stream of travellers visited Ankober, including Captain William Cornwallis Harris.

[1] The stone palace crowned the top of the hill, surrounded with a simple fortification of stakes and branches, while most of the people lived in conical thatched huts scattered across the face of the mountain.

During the later 19th century, Wehni Azaj Welde Sadeq (1838–1909) was governor of Ankober and chief of the local prison, having jurisdiction over the Afar lowlands until his death.

[8] In the military actions leading to the Battle of Segale, on 18 October 1916 Negus Mikael's troops crushed an advance force of 11,000 men stationed in Ankober and killed their leader, Ras Lul Seged.