Often imagined as a vast desert, Ethiopia amazes with the diversity of its landscapes. Cut in two by the Rift Valley and its string of lakes where life abounds, Ethiopia is characterised by high plateaux's and fertile plains to the West and the contrasting aridity of the East of the country, of which the Danakil furnace and the Ogaden are the most striking examples.

Generally associated with pictures of famine and war Ethiopia can pride itself on a history and a culture among the most fascinating on the continent, free from any colonial influence. Regarded as the cradle of mankind it was home to many empires -including the Queen of Sheba's- until the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie, overthrown by communist dictator Mengistu, and the difficult introduction of democracy. At the crossing of animism, Christianity and Islam Ethiopia also fascinates for the mosaic of its ethnics.

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