Gendebelo

Gendebelo was a medieval Muslim trading center thought to be lost.[1] It was believed to situated about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Ankobar.[2] Gendebelo was "a great mercantile city", where camel caravans brought all kinds of spices except ginger (which was grown locally) from the port of Zeila.[2] Although Ethiopia is known as the second oldest Christian country in the world, about half of its population is Muslim.[1] Gendebelo was a place of peaceful trade between the Christian and Muslim cultures.[3]

In 2009, French archaeologists François-Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar and Bertrand Hirsch[4] discovered the site as a medieval city now known as Nora, which has been abandoned for years except for the mosque.[3]

An old Ajami manuscript helped the archaeologists determine the city's location.[3][4] Italian scholar and Ethiopia expert Enrico Cerulli had found the manuscript in the Muslim city of Harar in 1936, where it was being used to wrap sugar.[3][4] The archaeologists also used the writings of Alessandro Zorzi, a 16th-century Venetian explorer who had found the ruins of Gendebelo in the desert and referred to it as "the place where mules are to be unloaded and camels take over."[3][4]

• CNN Traveler "Lost and Found, The recent discovery of the remains of a number of ancient cities in Ethiopia has rekindled debate about the country’s remarkable past. Yves Stranger reports."