It's been 17 years since Solivagant visited Harar and wrote about it in a review that was so comprehensive that no one added a new one after that. Bowing to the previous reviewer, I will try not to repeat myself and add a few new elements, current as of January 2024.

Not much seems to have changed in these 17 years. We were surprised by the fact that Harar is a very lively urban center, both inside and outside the old city. We were lucky enough to sleep in a traditional Harari house and the scenery was indeed fantastic (see photo #1).

In the evening we went to feed the hyenas and, although the show is aimed at tourists, it is not to be missed. The master of the ceremony first puts the stick in your hand and then tells you to put it in your mouth - this places the hyena's muzzle several centimeters from our face. At least a dozen hyenas come to be fed, and they often roam the city streets at night, clearing them of waste and not harming people sleeping on the streets.

The next morning we went on a proper tour of the old town. The city is very old, the guide claimed that it was the second oldest in Ethiopia after Aksum, and until the 19th century it was an independent state. You can see Arab, Afar, Oromia, Italian, British, French, Portuguese and even Indian influences here. During their only 6-year occupation, the Italians built the largest mosque and several buildings here that have survived to this day. However, most of the houses are older, the old town has retained its character from several centuries ago. The defensive walls - preserved to this day - date back to the mid-16th century.

Our trip was typical of this type of place. First, we went to the meat markets - one for Muslims, the other for the few Christians here. It turns out that to this day Muslims do not buy Christian meat (which is understandable), but it also works the other way around - Christians do not eat halal meat. Apparently, such rules do not apply in larger cities, but they do here. And everywhere, for members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, eating camel meat is completely forbidden.

We also visited a spice market, a craft shop, a coffee roastery and two museums - one of them dedicated to the famous French poet Arthur Rimbaud, who came here as part of an expedition and may have lived there. Some houses and parts of the walls are painted very stylishly. The peculiarity of Harar are its mosques - there are 99 of them in the city (as many as the names of Allah), of which as many as 87 are within the city walls - this is probably the highest density of mosques in the world, although some of them are, of course, very tiny. And there are 5 gates leading to the city - as many as the pillars of the Muslim faith.

Probably the most spectacular element of our ‘daylight’ tour of Harar was a visit to the butchers' section (photo #4). This is because of the dozens of black kites circling around. These birds are regularly fed by butchers and every tourist can do it themselves. All he has to do is raise his hand with a piece of meat and who knows when this piece disappears in the bird's claws. My kids tried it and were a bit scared while feeding. But a moment later they really liked it!