A national park of high plateaus, deep gorges and sheer cliffs in northern Ethiopia, home to gelada monkeys, the rare walia ibex and the country's highest peak.
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The Simien Mountains are the worn-down remains of a huge volcanic massif built from lava flows roughly 40 to 25 million years ago. Over millions of years, erosion cut the high plateau into jagged peaks, deep valleys and sheer escarpments, with some cliffs dropping about 1,500 metres. The range includes Ras Dashen (Ras Dejen), at around 4,550 metres the highest point in Ethiopia, and is one of the few places in tropical Africa where snow sometimes falls.
The mountains appear in very old writing. A 3rd-century inscription known as the Monumentum Adulitanum describes snow-covered peaks where soldiers waded knee-deep, and the 6th-century traveller Cosmas Indicopleustes noted that the kings of Aksum used them as a place of exile. The name is linked to the Amharic word for 'north', though the historian Richard Pankhurst suggested its older Ge'ez form meant 'south', as the range lies south of Aksum.
Simien Mountains National Park was established in 1969, and UNESCO inscribed it as one of the first World Heritage Sites in 1978, for its scenery and rare wildlife. People have farmed these highlands for generations, and villages and terraced fields lie within and around the park. Most visitors come to walk, from day hikes along the northern escarpment to multi-day treks between camps such as Sankaber, Geech and Chenek.
A cliff wall running for some 35 km, with huge views over the lowlands from viewpoints such as Imet Gogo (about 3,960 m) and Inatye (about 4,070 m).
Large troops of these grass-eating primates, found only in the Ethiopian highlands, graze the meadows and are often seen at close range.
A wild mountain goat found nowhere else in the world, living on the high cliffs of the park.
With luck you may spot the Ethiopian wolf, the world's rarest canid, while lammergeiers glide along the cliffs among more than 130 bird species.
Around the high camps, tall giant lobelias stand among grassland and tree heather, part of the Afroalpine plant life the park is known for.
Ethiopia's highest mountain, at around 4,550 metres, reached on a longer multi-day trek beyond the main park trails.
Gelada monkeys are seen on most walks; the walia ibex, found only here, lives on the cliffs, and the rare Ethiopian wolf is sometimes spotted.
The main trekking routes climb to around 4,000 metres, and Ras Dashen, Ethiopia's highest peak, rises to around 4,550 metres.
At Debark, where the park headquarters is, about three hours by road north of Gondar.
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