Fun facts on Ethiopia
- Ethiopia is the only African country with its own alphabet.
- Ethiopia is the only country in the world with 13 months.
- Ethiopia is the homeland of coffee; it was discovered by a shepherd named Kaldi who noticed his goats prancing about restlessly after eating the leaves of the coffee plant. It is thought the word coffee was borrowed from the southern Ethiopian lands of Kaffa.
- Ethiopia is almost twice the size of Texas.
- Ethiopia has 63 airports. Only 17 of them have a paved runway. (Good thing my parents picked the right one (:)
- Traditionally, parents and children do not share a last name. Most children take their father’s first name as their last name (My little brothers last name was Abraham, which is his fathers first name.)
- Time in Ethiopia is counted on the opposite side of the clock (6:00 is at our 12:00)
- There are more than 80 different ethnic groups in Ethiopia with just as many languages and over 200 dialects are spoken throughout the country.
- Ethiopia adopted Christianity in the 4th century, making it one of the oldest Christian nations in the world.
- There are 279 species of mammals found in Ethiopia, of which 5 are critically endangered, 8 are endangered, 27 are vulnerable and 12 are near-threatened. There are 31 endemic mammal species found in Ethiopia.
- There are 175 species of fish found in Ethiopia, 40 of which are endemic.
- Because much of Ethiopia is rural, kids who attend school may have to walk several miles each way.
- The population despite its famines in the last 25 years is estimated over 85.2 million people, making the population of Ethiopia the second highest in Africa.
- Ethiopia has a long tradition of creating great Olympic long distance runners.
- Ethiopia's flag is green, yellow, and red.