Highest Mountains in Ethiopia

Overview

According to Erik Nilsson, Ras Dashen is the eastern peak of the rim of "an enormous volcano, the northern half of which is cut down about thousand metres by numerous ravines, draining into the Takkazzi River." Its western counterpart is Mount Biuat (4,437 meters), separated by the valley of the Meshaha River. The mountain often sees violent snowfalls during the night, but given that day and night temperatures vary greatly, the snow is almost completely melted in a few hours (during the hottest period of the year), for the temperature may be over 5 degrees Celsius by midday. In winter snow falls normally, since the majority of Ethiopia's yearly rainfall is in the summer, but if it does it usually lasts for weeks or months.

Geography

The mountain has two distinct summits, the higher being the south one with an elevation of 2,021 metres. The north summit in Ethiopia has an elevation of 1,871 metres. Both summits are separated by a large caldera, about 1 km (0.71 mi) wide and 1514 metres deep. Mousa Ali, in the northern part of the Great Rift Valley region, has Eritrea on its northern flank, Ethiopia on the west, and Djibouti the east and south. The Djiboutian town of Dorra is 36 km to the south-southeast, the Ethiopian volcano Manda-Inakir is 22 km to the southwest, and the road from the Ethiopian town of Manda to the Eritrean port of Assab is 19 km to the northwest.

History

Two sects of Afar live in the area. They are collectively known as Adrúmmi, from 'Adó rum li or "white as Byzantines."

The position of Ali Mousa as the tripoint between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti is not the result of an agreement between the three countries. In December 1948 the British administering Eritrea refused to attend a meeting with the other two parties to determine the exact location of their tripoint, set in a 1908 treaty as 60 km inland from the Red Sea. British administration of Eritrea ended in 1952, and with increasing Ethiopian administration over the ensuing decade, and incorporation into Ethiopia from 1962 to 1993, the boundary was internal, not international.