Nii Ntreh | Staff Writer
December 07, 2019 at 07:30 am
An aerial view of Shonke. Photo Credit: TrekkingEthiopia.com
“A city that is set on a hill”, a verse in the gospel of Matthew says, “cannot be hidden.” That was an ethical reference, but about 2,500 miles westwards from where Jesus presumably said those words, is literally a village on a mountaintop in Ethiopia.
Shonke, the 900-and-something-year-old settlement (according to the Islamic calendar) is in the Amhara region. It is situated on one of the highest points in a country with a significant number of high points.
The Oromiya Zone in which Shonke is located is close to 1,600 metres, about 5,200 feet, above sea level.
This means the people of Shonke live in an area farther in the skies than the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in the UAE.
Theirs is an entirely Muslim community tracing their ancestry to Arabs who run away from wars in the Gulf region to hide in Abyssinia, Ethiopia’s ancient name.
As refugees, these Arabs were protected at that time by the village’s only two gates which were always guarded. The gates still stand to this day.