Ethiopia: highlands, rift valley and rapid change
Geography · Key Stage 3 · The School
A highland country
Most of Ethiopia sits on a high plateau. Much of it lies over two thousand metres above sea level. The GREAT RIFT VALLEY cuts through it. This is part of a huge crack in the Earth's crust that runs the length of East Africa. Because the land sits so high, Ethiopia's climate is cooler than you would expect so close to the Equator.
Altitude decides the farming
Ethiopian farmers describe their land in bands of height. Each band suits different crops. The cool highlands, above about 2,400 metres, grow wheat and barley. The middle band is where coffee first grew wild. It suits coffee and maize today. The hot, low land suits crops such as sorghum and cotton. Height above sea level, more than distance from the Equator, decides what grows where.
Water from Ethiopia's highlands
Rain falling on the Ethiopian Highlands is the main source of the Blue Nile. This river supplies most of the water that reaches Egypt, far downstream — the same river met earlier in this unit, comparing Egypt and the Ganges basin. Rain falling in Ethiopia, thousands of kilometres away, is directly linked to a country most Ethiopians will never visit.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, has grown fast. New factories, textile mills and building sites draw workers from the countryside. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam sits on the Blue Nile. It is Africa's biggest hydroelectric project. It is meant to power Ethiopia's continued growth. It has also caused real tension with Egypt and Sudan downstream. Both countries depend on the same river reaching them, mostly undiminished. This is the same kind of shared-river dispute already met over the Middle East's Tigris and Euphrates.