Ethiopia Highlights, the only stand-alone guide to Ethiopia's top visitor attractions, hones in on the most alluring historical and natural attractions of a vast country that ranks among the most scenically and culturally varied destinations in Africa. It condenses the key contents of Bradt's more comprehensive guide to Ethiopia - written by the same author and praised as one of the best guidebooks ever published - into a portable but informative travel companion for first-time visitors on an organized tour to Ethiopia. It concentrates on the renowned northern historical circuit, where more than 100 magnificent mediaeval rock-hewn churches vie for attention with the UNESCO restored castles of Gondar and ancient giant stelae of Axum. Other highlights include the sparkling Rift Valley lakes, the walled Islamic citadel of Harar, the traditional African ethnic cultures of the remote Omo Valley, the forbidding wastes of the Afar region (source of the oldest human fossils ever uncovered) and the green mountainous expanses of Simien and Bale National Parks, with their wealth of unique mammals and birds.