Harla
About This Place
Some 15 km from Dire Dawa on the way to Dengego, Haräla is probably a XIII century town that sized nearly half sq km. Walled; it was the capital of the Haräla[1] kingdom located in between the Indian Ocean and the highlands of Ethiopia. It has developed for long time commercial links with Zeila, a sea town and a strategic door to the middle and Far East. Through that, nilotic, high and low lands cultures of Ethiopia were easily intermingled with those from Arabia peninsula, other countries of Middle East, India and far East, as confirmed by chronicles of the time.
Coins written in Arabic and Chinese alphabet, pieces of glasses, ornaments, tools for knitting and pottery fragments have been found in the settlement by peasants together with a stony moon calendar with two geographical coordinates (sinus geometry?)[2]. The calendar, nearly 10 cms long, 5 large and 1 tick, remains into two pieces, but still readable and in good condition. The tablet is maybe broken, but it would have been designed in two pieces originally, one orthogonal to the other to ease observing the seasonal moon movement in the sky from a given landmark. This latter might have been a ceremonial place with great symbolic worth.
Haräla was probably a well designed terraced town, with a strong economic base, located mainly on the right side of the present road to Dengego, on a hilly landscape between two small wabi. On the left side, grave sites have been identified, but commanding defence buildings were probably overlooking the town.
As remnants do indicate, the main activities were related to handicraft (weaving, knitting, pottery, glass[3], wood and iron works), farming and cattle raising, processing of leather and skins, mining (copper) and quarrying (quartz, sand, marble, stone). Probably, the terrace system of the settlement (with related drainage and water supply infrastructures) was including gardens and replicated in the surrounding rural areas to create fields along riff and hilly landscape for cultivation. The gentle land morphology allowed such engineering.
Footstep of harila people
Coins written in Arabic and Chinese alphabet, pieces of glasses, ornaments, tools for knitting and pottery fragments have been found in the settlement by peasants together with a stony moon calendar with two geographical coordinates (sinus geometry?)[2]. The calendar, nearly 10 cms long, 5 large and 1 tick, remains into two pieces, but still readable and in good condition. The tablet is maybe broken, but it would have been designed in two pieces originally, one orthogonal to the other to ease observing the seasonal moon movement in the sky from a given landmark. This latter might have been a ceremonial place with great symbolic worth.
Haräla was probably a well designed terraced town, with a strong economic base, located mainly on the right side of the present road to Dengego, on a hilly landscape between two small wabi. On the left side, grave sites have been identified, but commanding defence buildings were probably overlooking the town.
As remnants do indicate, the main activities were related to handicraft (weaving, knitting, pottery, glass[3], wood and iron works), farming and cattle raising, processing of leather and skins, mining (copper) and quarrying (quartz, sand, marble, stone). Probably, the terrace system of the settlement (with related drainage and water supply infrastructures) was including gardens and replicated in the surrounding rural areas to create fields along riff and hilly landscape for cultivation. The gentle land morphology allowed such engineering.
Footstep of harila people