Historical, and Cultural Heritages of the Dire Dawa Administration
Thanks to the successive archeological discoveries made in the great Afar Rift Valley and elsewhere in the country in recent years, has taken the forefront in the prehistoric chronicles of mankind.
The Dire Dawa Administration, which is situated on the fringe of this valley, seems to have provided our prehistoric ancestors the ideal place where they could pursue their earliest engagement with what is known today as artistic expressions. The diverse relief and climate that the prehistoric people found in the area must have provided them the conducive conditions and facilitating input for their self civilizing and developing endeavors.
In this regard, the Dire Dawa Administration has a number of rich prehistoric caves, some of which have achieved international recognitions at least among rock-art enthusiasts thanks to the French and American scholars who have carried out excavation work and other studies on a few of them since the late 1920's. The fact that there are still other promising caves and other historical sites that have not been studied by anyone so far makes the administration an ideal choice for research tourism.
Porc
Epic
Cave
Porc Epic is situated about 3 km to the south of Dire Dawa. It was the first prehistoric rock-art site to be discovered in the area. It lies over 140 meters above the sandy floor of the seasonal wadi draining the uplands south of the town. The steep climb to this cave takes about 30 minutes.
Excavations carried out at the cave so far have yielded a large number of Middle Stone Age assemblage, floral and faunal remains that include the mandible of Neanderthal, pottery and above all some naturalistic paintings on the walls and ceiling of the cave.
Laga-oda
Laga-oda is a cave shelter located about 35 km to the southwest of Dire Dawa. The cave shelter has kept the rock paintings numbering over 600 remarkably well. The paintings in this prehistoric cave shelter consist of pictures of both domestic and wild animals, human figures, symbols, and plants. This cave shelter has also yielded a number of prehistoric artifacts and faunal remains that belonged to the Later Stone Age.
The rock-art paintings at both these sites are dated to around 5000bp, but there are others who date them even much earlier. On the other hand, the analysis of the various artifacts discovered by excavations from these two sites date them to be from 61, 000 to 77, 000bp.
Goda-ajewa
Goda-ajewa is another prehistoric cave art site located about 28 km to the southeast of Dire Dawa. Paintings of domestic animals like camels and human figures in black, white and red colors are found in this cave.
Enkuftu
Cave
This is a surface cave found within Dire Dawa itself at a place called Addis Ketema. It is a cave about which little is known apart from the fact that one of its walls feels cold, while the other one feels very hot when touched.
All the same, people, who have lived in the area all their lives, say that there are tunnels that go very far. All this will have to be substantiated by archeologists in the years to come.
Harala
Harala is at present a small roadside village located 15 km from Dire Dawa on the road to Harar. This village is said to have been the capital of the
Harala
Kingdom , a thirteen century kingdom that had a trade link with mid-east and far-east countries of the time through the
Port of
Ziela on the
Indian Ocean
The people of Harala had mysteriously disappeared from the face of the earth without a trace, and are survived by the stone terraces, water wells still feeding, remains of partial walls of what appears to be fortresses and religious places, and above all other artifacts like coins written in Arabic, and Chinese alphabets, pieces of glasses, ornaments like beads, tools for knitting and pottery, etc. The following pictures of artifacts unearthed from Harala by farmers while working in their fields can speak for themselves about the people of Harala and their kingdom.
Abeyaziz Mosque
This mosque is found at Hulul Modgo 25 km from Dire Dawa. Abeyaziz is a single towered mosque that is believed to have been constructed by the Harala people over five hundred years ago.
The obelisk like structure you see in the center of this picture is the relic of the Abeyaziz Mosque at Hulul Modjo.
Stele
In Hulul Modjo, we also find an ancient stele, which is supposed to have been erected there by the People Harala centuries ago.
St. Michael's Church at Awale
This is the first church built by Catholic priests that had entered the country through Port Zeila on the
Indian Ocean in 1884.
The church still stands intact and Catholic believers from Harar, Dire Dawa, and other areas annually congregate at the church during the month of October to celebrate St. Michael's day.
