Arriving in Harar we went to the hotel we had picked. Rather on the cheaper side we did not expect much, but when we discovered the state the sheets were in we decided that we are willing to spend almost 13€ more. For both of us. I think I have ever seen such a leap in quality for that price.
To explore the old town Harar we took our guide book‘s advice and booked a (human) guide. The old town is a maze of small an narrow roads and the old wall is an UNESCO World heritage. Since we only started to look for a guide one day in advance, some were already booked. But after a bit of calling around we found Cha Cha. We started our tour with the different markets. They are clustered by the items for sale. There is a second hand marked, where one might rediscover ones old shots, that was given to charity, and the recycling market, which offers tools and parts. Especially for the old Peugeot taxis (50 years and more), parts are taken from old ones and reassembled. There is also a plastic and metal collection. The collected bits are transported to a factory where new parts are made. While have seen lots of garbage lying around, this approach gives us hope.
We went on to the spice market and the ‚Christian Market‘. The name is a remainder from it being held in the former Christian quarter. We walked around town all day and Cha Cha showed us a few of the mosques, from the grad mosque to the tiniest one for only a handfull of people. There are 99 mosques in Harar and they are all numbered. Harar is the center of the muslim population and one of the holy cities in Islam. But there is a significant Christian population, too, catholic snd orthodox. For the peaceful coexistence, Harar has been names a city of peace.
In the evening we went to see the second attraction of Harar: Hyena feeding. The hyenas and the city have lived rather peacefully together ever since. We could see small opening in the wall, called hyena gates. In former times they we’re very small, but even now they are only for pedestrians. The feeding takes place whilst outside the city walls and is a skill passed down from father to son. Apparently the hyena appear every night, and it would be considered bad luck they ever didn’t. The hyena man calls them and feeds them meat place on a stick. We were standing maybe 5-10m away in a small crowd of 15-20 people. One could also feed the hyena themselves, for some reason not with the feeding stick in the hand but between their teeth. We declined the offer, that’s not the kind of thill we are looking for. The whole spectacle lasted maybe 20 minutes and was an exiting way to finish our day.
