Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa is Africa's third-largest city and the seat of the African Union, founded in 1886 at the foot of the Entoto Hills at an elevation of 2,355 metres. The National Museum houses Lucy, the 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, while the Ethnological Museum in the former Haile Selassie palace contains one of the continent's most comprehensive collections of Ethiopian material culture. The Merkato, one of Africa's largest open-air markets, and the coffee ceremony culture pervasive in every neighbourhood make the city a layered urban destination.