[2] As traveler Markham briefly explains what he observed during his journey in the year 1868, Dӓlanta is a flat plain, quite treeless, except the clumps around a few churches, and with a rich black soil several inches thick, save where the streams have worn it away and laid bare the pentagon-shaped tops of the basalt columns.

From most points of view the scarped side of the Dawənt plateau and of the Žəṭṭa and Bashilo ravines is just visible of the edges of the plain.

[3] The eastern part has been described as “a mass of columnar basalt between the Žəṭṭa and Bäšlo rivers, with its surface upwards of 9000 feet above the level of the sea.

The remaining one-third of the area is located along the river valleys on the east, southeast, north and northwest escarpments.

Areas such as Yəlana Bätačə, Mähal Dälanta, Zəban Däga, and Čäwu Quțər are fall under this zone.

[13] People living in this zone rely on both Bälg and Mäḵär seasons and they cultivate crops such as Teff (Eragrostis tef), beans, peas, lentils and Gʷaya (Lathyrus sativus) and Abəš (Trigonella foenum-graecum).

[14] Based on the 2007 national census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 127,771, of whom 63,747 are men and 64,024 women; 7,850 or 6.14% are urban inhabitants.