Addis Ababa is one of the youngest capital cities in the world and one of the most complex — founded in 1886 at 2,400 metres in the highlands of a nation that was never colonised, it has become the diplomatic capital of Africa and home to the African Union. This addis ababa walking tour by J Walking Tour takes you into the beating commercial heart of the city: Merkato, the largest open-air market in Africa, a sprawling universe of trade, colour, and noise that has operated continuously for over a century. The video captures the scale, the density, and the extraordinary vitality of a market district unlike anything else on the continent.

About This Walking Tour

Merkato takes its name from the Italian word for market — a remnant of the Italian occupation of 1936 to 1941 — and covers several square kilometres of western Addis Ababa in a dense grid of stalls, warehouses, and open-air trading areas. The J Walking Tour video moves through Merkato’s different sectors, each specialising in a different category of goods: grain and pulses, spices and coffee, electronics, textiles, metalwork, and the extraordinary recycling areas where every conceivable object is repaired, repurposed, and resold.

Merkato operates on a scale that overwhelms at first approach. Thousands of vendors, porters pushing loaded carts, trucks unloading, donkeys carrying goods, and buyers haggling create a sensory environment that the video transmits with genuine fidelity. The spice section — where mountains of berbere, mitmita, turmeric, and black cumin are displayed in open sacks — is particularly vivid, as is the coffee section where green Ethiopian coffee beans are sold by weight, an experience that connects this market directly to the origins of coffee itself, for Ethiopia is where the plant was first discovered.

The broader Addis Ababa walking route encompasses the Italian Piazza quarter with its Art Deco colonial buildings, the Holy Trinity Cathedral where Emperor Haile Selassie is entombed, the National Museum with its famous Lucy fossil, and Meskel Square — one of the largest public squares in Africa and the site of the annual Meskel bonfire festival marking the finding of the True Cross.

Highlights of Addis Ababa

The National Museum of Ethiopia on King George VI Street houses the country’s most important palaeontological and cultural collections. Its centrepiece is Lucy — the near-complete skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis discovered in the Afar region in 1974, dating to approximately 3.2 million years ago. At the time of discovery she was the oldest known human ancestor; the cast displayed here represents one of the most significant objects in the story of human evolution. The same museum displays the thrones, regalia, and personal effects of Haile Selassie, Ethiopia’s last emperor.

The Holy Trinity Cathedral (Kidist Selassie), completed in 1941 to celebrate liberation from Italian occupation, is the most important Ethiopian Orthodox church in Addis Ababa. Emperor Haile Selassie and Empress Menen are entombed in the cathedral’s crypt, and the building’s ornate carved exterior — blending Ethiopian Orthodox iconography with European Gothic influence — is among the most distinctive church facades in Africa. The nearby St George Cathedral, built in 1896 after the Battle of Adwa victory, was where Haile Selassie was crowned Emperor in 1930.

The Piazza quarter in the north of the city centre preserves Addis Ababa’s most visible Italian architectural legacy — wide boulevards, Art Deco commercial buildings, and the Italo-Ethiopian hybrid style that emerged during and after the occupation. Cafes in the Piazza serve macchiato and pastries in a tradition absorbed directly from Italian coffee culture and now claimed as authentically Ethiopian.

A Brief History of Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa — “New Flower” in Amharic — was founded in 1886 by Emperor Menelik II and his consort Empress Taytu on the slopes of the Entoto Hills. Taytu chose the site for its hot springs; eucalyptus trees, imported from Australia to provide firewood and prevent deforestation, were planted throughout the new city and remain characteristic of its landscape today.

The Battle of Adwa on 1 March 1896 was the defining moment not just of Ethiopian but of African history: the first occasion on which an African army, under Emperor Menelik, decisively defeated a European colonial power in pitched battle. Italy’s invasion force was destroyed, and Ethiopia remained independent throughout the Scramble for Africa — the only African nation, alongside Liberia, to avoid formal colonisation. Adwa made Ethiopia a symbol of African resistance that resonated across the diaspora for generations.

The Italian occupation of 1936 to 1941, enabled by Mussolini’s use of chemical weapons, was ended by British and Ethiopian forces in 1941. Haile Selassie, who had appealed dramatically to the League of Nations in 1936, returned to Addis Ababa. The Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union) was founded here in 1963, cementing Addis Ababa’s role as the continent’s diplomatic headquarters — a position it retains with the AU Commission still based in the city.

Practical Tips

Bole International Airport is 5 km from the city centre, making it unusually close for an African capital. The light rail system (inaugurated 2015) connects the airport area to the Merkato district and central Addis Ababa — the first light rail system in sub-Saharan Africa. Taxis and ride-hailing apps (Ride and ZayRide) operate throughout the city. The Merkato is best visited in the morning when it is most active; take only what you need as the market is crowded.

October to February is the dry season and the most comfortable time to visit. The Ethiopian calendar differs from the Gregorian — Ethiopia celebrates its new year in September and Christmas (Gena) in January, with significant Orthodox Christian festivals throughout the year that bring colourful processions to the city’s churches. Ethiopia’s currency is the Birr; credit cards are accepted at hotels but cash is essential for market visits.

Watch & Explore More

For more African capital city walks, visit @walkingtoursvideoscom. From Addis Ababa, continue your East African exploration with our Nairobi walking tour through Kenya’s CBD and Karen, or discover the Swahili coast with our Zanzibar Stone Town walking tour.