Harar Jugol, the Fortified Historic Town
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How it came to be
Harar stands on a plateau cut by deep gorges in eastern Ethiopia. The walls around the town were built between the 13th and 16th centuries. In 1520 it became the capital of the Adal Sultanate under Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad, and Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim later made it the base for his campaigns against Christian Ethiopia.
After Imam Ahmad's defeat in 1543, Nur ibn Mujahid ruled Harar from 1551 and built a great wall around the town against Oromo attacks. In the 17th century Ali ibn Da'ud founded the Emirate of Harar, which minted its own coins. The minaret of the grand mosque went up in 1761, and the town became a religious centre for the region.
Egypt occupied Harar in the 1870s, raised the height of the walls and replaced the emirs' old palace with a two-storey governor's house. The emirate was restored in 1885, but in 1887 Menelik II won the Battle of Chelenqo and conquered the walled city. Within the walls stand 82 mosques and 102 shrines. Harar Jugol was inscribed in 2006.
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