All activities / Museums & Galleries / Addis Ababa
Museums & Galleries in Addis Ababa
Ethiopia's high-altitude capital and the diplomatic hub of Africa, a sprawling city of Merkato markets, national museums holding the fossil Lucy, a deep coffee-house culture and the injera-and-wat cooking at the heart of Ethiopian food.
Why here
The National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa holds one of the most important objects in the human story, and that is reason enough to plan a visit around it. In its basement lies Lucy, known in Amharic as Dinkinesh, the 3.2-million-year-old partial skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis unearthed in the Afar region in 1974 that reshaped the understanding of human origins. Around her the museum lays out Ethiopia's astonishing depth of prehistory and its later imperial and religious art across four exhibition floors. Standing in front of the reconstructions, one lying and one upright at barely over a metre tall, is a quietly staggering encounter with an ancestor, in the country that has yielded more early hominid fossils than almost anywhere on earth.
Best months
The museum is indoor and open year round, so it works in any weather and pairs well with a rainy day in the June to September wet season. Mornings are generally quieter. What is displayed is a high-fidelity cast of Lucy, since the fragile original is kept in climate-controlled storage, and the museum closes on the major Orthodox holidays of Genna, Timkat and Meskel.
Getting there & around
The National Museum sits centrally in Addis Ababa near the university and Siddist Kilo, an easy taxi ride from most hotels, and needs one to two hours. As Ethiopia's international gateway, Addis makes the museum a natural first-day orientation before flying on to Lalibela, Gondar or the south. Entry is inexpensive, and a guide can add useful context to the hominid gallery.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
National Museum of Ethiopia
OrganizerThe National Museum of Ethiopia, in central Addis Ababa, is the country's principal museum and home to Lucy, or Dinkinesh, the 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton discovered at Hadar in the Afar region in 1974 and representing about 40 percent of one individual. Its four exhibition areas run from paleoanthropology in the basement through regalia, art and ethnography above. The fragile original is kept in storage and a high-fidelity cast is displayed to visitors.