REMARKS

Before entering the old town, it's worth starting your visit with a stroll along the ramparts, outside the walls. This is an opportunity to observe the small holes in the wall, large enough for hyenas to pass through, long considered the city's night-time garbage collectors as the gates closed on the last travellers. The Harar Gate, opened in the 1970s, has been the city's main access route ever since. From here, you descend to the Shoa Gate, in front of which a large market known as the "Christian Market" is regularly held. Here you can admire the beauty of the Harari women's attire, adorned with brightly-colored stoles and gold or silver jewelry. At the corner of the Hotel Belayneh, a path begins that leads successively to the Buda gate (or "sorcerers' gate", in reference to the blacksmiths who lived there, long the victims of superstition), to the Sanga gate and its community fountain, then to the Erer (or Argobari) gate, near which stands a leprosarium built in 1901 by French monks, still in operation today. Between these last two gates stands the tomb of King Aoussar. Not far from here, the traditional hyena meal takes place. Further on, the Fallana Gate is the last of the five original gates (two were opened later) and the one through which Richard Burton is said to have entered the town at the head of a caravan in 1854.