Tiya

South of Addis Ababa, a field of carved stones marks the resting place of a people whose identity has slipped from memory. Tiya is the most notable of some 160 archaeological sites in the Soddo region, and its 36 monuments — 32 of them stelae incised with symbols that still resist decipherment — are all that remains of an ancient Ethiopian culture of uncertain date. UNESCO inscribed Tiya as a World Heritage Site in 1980.