Mekele

Brief information about the Mekele

Mekelle Mekelle (Tigrinya: መቐለ, mäqälle, Amharic: መቀሌ, mek’elē, Italian: Macallé), or Mekele formerly the capital of Enderta awraja in Tigray, is today the capital city of Tigray National Regional state. It is located around 780 kilometres (480 mi) north of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, with an elevation of 2,254 metres (7,395 ft) above sea level.

Administratively, Mekelle is considered a Special Zone, which is divided into seven sub-cities. Mekelle is the economic, cultural, and political hub of northern Ethiopia. Mekelle has grown rapidly since 1991. In 1984 it had 61,583 inhabitants, in 1994, 96,938 (96.

5% being Tigrinya-speakers), and in 2006 169,200 (i.e. 4% of the population of Tigray). Mekelle is 2.6 times larger than Adigrat, the second largest regional center. It is the fifth largest city in Ethiopia, after Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, Adama, and Gondar. The largest proportion of the population of Mekelle depends on government employment, commerce and small-scale enterprises.

Mekelle now has new engineering, cement and textile factories, producing for the local and foreign market. There is a rising university which developed out of the pre-1991 Arid Agricultural College, and about a dozen other governmental and private colleges.