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Debre Werq

Town in Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Summary

Town in Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Field	Value
official_name	Debre Werq
settlement_type	Town
pushpin_map	Ethiopia
pushpin_label_position	bottom
pushpin_mapsize	250
pushpin_map_caption	Location in Ethiopia
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_type1	Region
subdivision_name	Ethiopia
subdivision_name1	Amhara
subdivision_type2	Zone
subdivision_name2	East Gojjam
population_as_of	2005
population_total	13,908 (est)
timezone	EAT
utc_offset	+3
coordinates
elevation_m	2489

Debre Werq (Amharic: ደብረ ወርቅ) is a small town in western Ethiopia. Located in the East Gojjam of the Amhara Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 2489 meters above sea level. The settlement is known for its church and a hilltop monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary, around which the community grew. It is the larger of two towns in Enarj Enawga woreda.

History

An early mention of Debre Werq is during the reign of 1559 when, according to explorer Richard Francis Burton, the emperor Mar Gelawdewos had been supervising its restoration. Around 1620, the Tulema Oromo were said to have devastated Gojjam as far as Debre Werq. Its next mention is in 1684, in an itinerary of Emperor Iyasu I. Cardinal Guglielmo Massaia met with Ras Ali II here in the mid-19th century, describing the town as sitting on a round hill with the church at its summit; the town encircling the church almost extended down to the base of the hill. A debtera, who was head of the church, also appeared to be the civil head of the town. Charles Beke, who visited Debre Werq 25 April 1842, described the town was not only located "on a conical eminence", located the hill at "the fork of two small streams Tazza and Zinjut." (Both of these streams are tributaries of the Chee.)

Paul B. Henze describes visiting the church at Debre Werq in the early 1970s, an event which included finding the church being rebuilt from the foundations, and an unpleasant encounter with a monk over wanting to view the church's collection of manuscripts.

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Debre Werq has an estimated total population of 13,908, of whom 6,643 are men and 7,265 are women. The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 8,048 of whom 3,495 were men and 4,553 were women.

Notes

References

Richard Burton, ''First Footsteps in East Africa'' (New York: Praeger, 1966), pp. 183f
[http://130.238.24.99/library/resources/dossiers/local_history_of_ethiopia/d/ORTDEB2.pdf "Local History in Ethiopia"] {{webarchive. link. (2008-02-27 (pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 11 March 2009))
G.W.B. Huntingford, ''The historical geography of Ethiopia from the first century AD to 1704'', (Oxford University Press: 1989), p. 204
Charles T. Beke, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1798047 "Abyssinia: Being a Continuation of Routes in That Country", ''Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London''], 14 (1844), p. 16
[http://www.csa.gov.et/text_files/2005_national_statistics.htm CSA 2005 National Statistics] {{webarchive. link. (November 23, 2006 , Table B.4)

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

populated-places-in-the-amhara-region

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