| Gendebelo | |
| Location: | Ethiopia |
| Type: | City |
| Discovered: | 2009 |
| Archaeologists: | François-Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar Bertrand Hirsch |
Gendebelo (also called Gende Belo) was an ancient Muslim trading city in Ethiopia. Its location was discovered in 2009 by a team of French archaeologists.[1]
Gendebelo was a medieval Muslim trading center thought to be lost.[1] It was believed to situated about from Ankobar.[2] Gendebelo was "a great mercantile city", where camel caravans brought all kinds of spices except ginger (which was grown locally) from the port of Zeila.[2] Although Ethiopia is known as the second oldest Christian country in the world, about half of its population is Muslim.[1] Gendebelo was a place of peaceful trade between the Christian and Muslim cultures.
In 2009, French archaeologists François-Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar and Bertrand Hirsch[3] discovered the site as a medieval city now known as Nora, which has been abandoned for years except for the mosque.[4]
An old Ajami manuscript helped the archaeologists determine the city's location.[4] [3] Italian scholar and Ethiopia expert Enrico Cerulli had found the manuscript in the Muslim city of Harar in 1936, where it was being used to wrap sugar.[4] [3] The archaeologists also used the writings of Alessandro Zorzi, a 16th-century Venetian explorer who had found the ruins of Gendebelo in the desert and referred to it as "the place where mules are to be unloaded and camels take over."[4] [3]