Mount Hazalo, also known as Azalo, or Ayelu is an isolated,

rhyolitic Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals ( phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The miner ...

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with ...

in eastern

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. Located in the

Afar Region The Afar Region (; ; ), formerly known as Region 2, is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in northeastern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Afar people. Its capital is the planned city of Semera, which lies on the paved Awash, Ethiopia, Awash� ...

, near the South of the towns of

Āfdem Āfdem ()is a town is east central Ethiopia. Located in the Sitti Zone of the Somali Region. It is located 59 km east of Shinile. It is the administrative center of Afdem woreda. It sprawls on a wide basin surrounded by granitic mountains on a ...

and Gewane, and has an altitude of . The district is today inhabited by the

Afar people The Afar (), also known as the Danakil, Adali and Odali, are a Cushitic peoples, Cushitic ethnic group inhabiting the Horn of Africa. They primarily live in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and in northern Djibouti, as well as the entire southern co ...

however in the past also by the Doba, Warjih and

Harari people The Harari people ( Harari: / , Gēy Usuach, "People of the City") are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group which inhabits the Horn of Africa. Members of this ethnic group traditionally reside in the walled city of Harar, simply called ''Gēy'' "the ...

. The Battle of Hazalo took place between the

Adal Sultanate The Adal Sultanate, also known as the Adal Empire or Barr Saʿad dīn (alt. spelling ''Adel Sultanate'', ''Adal Sultanate'') (), was a medieval Sunni Muslim empire which was located in the Horn of Africa. It was founded by Sabr ad-Din III on th ...

and Oromo of Gada Michelle in the 16th century. The

have a tradition that, they travelled to this mountain where they settled for a number of years. Here they prospered until their wealth led them to hold weddings and feasts during

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

; for this

Allah Allah ( ; , ) is an Arabic term for God, specifically the God in Abrahamic religions, God of Abraham. Outside of the Middle East, it is principally associated with God in Islam, Islam (in which it is also considered the proper name), althoug ...

is said to have sent a famine and plagues on them. After this, the people moved to Ifat during its earlier period.

Wilfred Thesiger Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger (3 June 1910 – 24 August 2003), also known as Mubarak bin Landan (, ''the blessed one of London'') was a British military officer, explorer, and writer. Thesiger's travel books include '' Arabian Sands'' (1959), ...

describes his ascent of Mount Ayalu in 1933. He notes that this mountain was the object of an annual

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

by members of the

, who travelled from as far away as Daoe in order to climb to the summit where they would pray for good health and success in war. They would also make a pilgrimage to Ayalu in other times of the year to pray for relief in times of famine and after a defeat in war. When David Buxton visited the site a little more than 10 years later, he was unable to learn if sacrifices were still made there. The volcano is one of the largest in Ethiopia and is located, along with its close neighbor

Adwa Adwa (; ; also spelled Adowa or Aduwa) is a town and separate woreda in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. It is best known as the community closest to the site of the 1896 Battle of Adwa, in which Ethiopian soldiers defeated Italian troops, thus being ...

, in a major right step of the linear chain of volcanoes and fissures along the middle of the

East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. It was formerly considered to be part of a l ...

. Due to the location of the volcano little is known about its past and present behavior. However, an earthquake and

InSAR Interferometric synthetic aperture radar, abbreviated InSAR (or deprecated IfSAR), is a radar technique used in geodesy and remote sensing. This geodetic method uses two or more synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images to generate maps of surface defo ...

study conducted by

Derek Keir Derek Keir (born 1979 Johannesburg, South Africa) has been an associate professor of geophysics at the University of Southampton since 2015. In 2013 he received the Bullerwell Lecture award from the British Geophysical Association (BGA) for signi ...

and colleagues shows that a magma intrusion around deep and long emanated away from the volcano and intruded near the eastern side of neighboring Adwa in May 2000.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ayalu Afar Region Mountains of Ethiopia Stratovolcanoes of Ethiopia

See also

References