Agula is a town located in northern Ethiopia. Located in the Debubawi (Southern) Zone of the

Tigray Region The Tigray Region (or simply Tigray; officially the Tigray National Regional State) is the northernmost Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob people, Irob and Kunama people. I ...

, it lies about 32 km northeast of

Mekelle Mekelle (), or Mek'ele, is a List of zones of Ethiopia, special zone and capital city, capital of the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Mekelle was formerly the capital of Enderta province, Enderta Awrajja, awraja in Tigray Province, Tigray. It is locate ...

, just east of the Mekelle to Addis Ababa highway, and 25 km north of

Qwiha Kwiha (in Italian colonial spelling Quiha, in recent years by some writers misunderstood as Qwiha without any basis in local spelling and pronunciation) is a town located in Tigray Regional State, Ethiopia. Quiha has the biggest airport in Tigra ...

. It has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1,930 metres above sea level. It is one of three towns in

Kilte Awulaelo Kilte Awulaelo (; also transliterated as Kǝlǝttä ʾAwlaʿlo) is one of Districts of Ethiopia, woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Misraqawi Zone, Kilte Awulaelo is bordered on the south by the Debub Misraqawi Zone, Debub Misra ...

woreda Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas (; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''List of zones of Ethiopia, zones'' and the ''Regions of Ethiopia, regional states''. These districts are f ...

. Nearby is a stream and a pass (elevation 2,030 metres) which share the same name. Agula was an important station on the salt caravan route from Dallol west to Atsbi.

History

Ruins of an ancient Greek church at Agulla

16th Century

Agula was visited by the Portuguese priest

Francisco Álvares Francisco Álvares ( – 1536–1541) was a Portugal, Portuguese missionary and exploration, explorer. In 1515 he traveled to Ethiopia as part of the Portuguese embassy to emperor Lebna Dengel accompanied by returning Mateus (Ethiopia), Ethi ...

on 13 August 1520, who called it ''Anguguim''. He mentions in the town "a well-built church — upon very thick stone supports; very well hewn" which was dedicated to Saint Chirqos. The town is mentioned again in an inquiry conducted by Emperor

Iyasu I Iyasu I ( Ge'ez: ኢያሱ ፩; 1654 – 13 October 1706), throne name Adyam Sagad (Ge'ez: አድያም ሰገድ), also known as Iyasu the Great, was Emperor of Ethiopia from 19 July 1682 until his death in 1706, and a member of the Solomonic dy ...

in 1698, in which he proclaimed that tolls should no longer be collected there. The village was visited in 1868 by members of the Napier Expedition, who found the church in ruins; they were told that the church had been reduced to its current state by treasure-seekers acting on the orders of ''

Dejazmach Until the end of the Ethiopian monarchy in 1974, there were two categories of nobility in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Mesafint ( , modern transcription , singular መስፍን , modern , "prince"), the hereditary royal nobility, formed the upper ...

Sabagadis Sabagadis Woldu (; horse name: Abba Garray; baptismal name: Za-Manfas Qedus; 1780 – 1831) was a governor of Tigray Province of the Ethiopian Empire from 1822 to 1831. Sabagadis gained some notoriety in the first decade of the 19th century for r ...

. Based on the "limited information now recoverable",

David Phillipson David Walter Phillipson FBA FSA (born 17 October 1942) is a British archaeologist specializing in African archaeology. His most notable work has been in Ethiopia, particularly on the archaeology of Aksumite sites. He was curator of the Museum o ...

assigns the construction of this church a "Late

Aksumite The Kingdom of Aksum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, based in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present-day Djibouti and Sudan. Emerging ...

or, perhaps, a subsequent date". ET Tigray Agula asv2018-01 img02

20th Century

Demographics

Based on figures from the

Central Statistical Agency The Central Statistical Agency, also known as the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS; Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ስታቲስቲክስ አገልግሎት), is an Ethiopian government agency designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that ...

of Ethiopia released in 2005, Agula has an estimated total population of 4,636, of whom 2,229 are men and 2,407 are women.CSA 2005 National Statistics
, Table B.4 The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 2,666 of whom 1,187 were men and 1,479 were women.

Notes

{{reflist Populated places in the Tigray Region