Land

Ethiopia, as large as France and Spain combined, has an area of 1,106,100 square kilometers. About 65 percent of the land is arable, with 15 percent presently cultivated.

Climate

There are two seasons: the dry season prevails from October through May: the wet season runs from June to September.

Topography

Ethiopia has an elevated central plateau varying in height between 2,000 and 3,000 meters. In the north and center of the country there are some 25 mountains whose peaks rise over 4,000 meters. The most famous Ethiopian river is the Blue Nile (Abbay), which runs a distance of 1,450 kilometers from the source in Lake Tana, to join the White Nile at Khartoum.

Transport

Roads: there are some 4,100 Kilometers of asphalt roads with a further 19,000 Kilometers of gravel and dry-weather roads.

Railway: A 778-Kilometers long railway line links Addis Ababa with Djibouti, and carries both freight and passengers.

Air: Ethiopian Air Lines  has an extensive domestic network flying to 43 airfields and an additional 21 landing strips. There are also well organized chartered private flights.

Economy

About 90 percent of the population earn their living from the land ,mainly as subsistence farmers. Agriculture is the backbone of  the national economy and the principal exports from this sector are Coffee, Oil seeds, pulses, flowers, vegetables, sugar and food stuffs for animals. There is also a thriving livestock sector, exporting cattle on the hoof and hides and skins.

Language

Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic state with a great variety of  languages spoken in the country, of which there are 83 with 200 dialects. The main three languages are Oromifa,Amharic and Tigrigna. English is also widely spoken.

Electric Supply

Ethiopia uses 220 volts 50 cycles AC

Newspapers

There are several foreign-language newspapers published in Ethiopia including the daily Ethiopian Herald, printed in English.

Time

Ethiopia is in the GMT + 3 hours time zone. Ethiopia follows the Julian calendar, which consists of twelve months of 30 days each and a thirteenth month of five or six days.

Type of Government

Ethiopia is a Federal Democratic Republic, in which the president is head of the state and the Prime Minister is the head of the government.