Dawuntna Delant ("Dewunt and Delant") was one of the 105

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 ...

s in the

Amhara Region The Amhara Region (), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people, Amhara, Awi people, Awi, Xamir people, Xamir, Argobba people, Argobba, a ...

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 ...

. Part of the

Semien Wollo Zone North Wollo (Amharic: ሰሜን ወሎ) also called Semien Wollo, is a zone in Amhara Region of Ethiopia. It is bordered on the south by South Wollo, on the west by South Gondar, on the north by Wag Hemra, on the northeast by Tigray Region, a ...

, Dawuntna Delant was bordered on the south by the

Checheho River The Checheho River is a small river located in north-central Ethiopia. Part of the watershed of the Abay River, it rises to the east of Debre Zebit to flow south to join the Bashilo River. Its major tributary is the Zhit'a, which enters the Ch ...

which separated it from the

Debub Wollo Zone South Wollo (Amharic: ደቡብ ወሎ) is a zone in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. It acquired its name from the former province of Wollo. South Wollo is bordered on the south by North Shewa and the Oromia Special Zone (Amhara), on the west b ...

, on the west by the

Debub Gondar Zone South Gondar or Debub Gondar (Amharic: ደቡብ ጎንደር), is one of Zones in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. This zone is named for the city of Gondar, which was the capital of Ethiopia until the mid-19th century, and has often been used as a na ...

, on the north by

Wadla Wadla (Amharic: ዋድላ) is a Districts of Ethiopia, woreda in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. It is named for the former district which lay roughly in the same area. Part of the Semien Wollo Zone, Wadla is bordered on the southeast by Delanta, on the ...

, and on the east by

Guba Lafto Guba Lafto (Amharic: ጉባ ላፍቶ) is one of the woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Semien Wollo Zone, Guba Lafto is bordered on the south by the Debub Wollo Zone, on the west by Delanta and Wadla, on the northwest by Meket, ...

. The deep valley of the Zhit'a river, which runs through Wadla and along part of the northern border, effectively isolates much of Dawuntna Delant from the rest of Semien Wollo. This woreda was named after two historical districts,

Dawunt Dawunt (Amharic: ዳውንት) is a woreda in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Part of the Semien (North) Wollo Zone, Dawunt is bordered on the south by the Checheho River which separated it from the Debub Wollo Zone, on the west by the Semien Gondar Zon ...

to the east and

Delanta Delanta (Amharic ደላንታ) is one of the Districts of Ethiopia, woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the South Wollo Zone, Delanta is bordered on the south by the Bashilo River which separated it from the Debub Wollo Zone, on the w ...

to the west. The major town in Dawuntna Delant was

Wegeltena Wegeltena (also known as Wegel Tena; ), is a town and administrative center of the Delanta woreda in northern Ethiopia. Located in the South Wollo zone of the Amhara Region, the town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 3010 meter ...

. This woreda was separated for

and

woredas.

Overview

The altitude of this woreda ranges from 700 to 3900 meters above sea level. The eastern part has been described as "a mass of columnar basalt between the rivers Jitta and Beshilo, with its surface upwards of 9000 feet above the level of the sea." Notable peaks include Amba Koheit, Amba Nebiet, and Mount Constantina. Dawuntna Delant, as well as the other seven rural woredas of this Zone, has been grouped amongst the 48 woredas identified as the most drought prone and food insecure in the Amhara Region. Landmarks in this woreda include the church of Yaddiba Maryam, notable for its wall paintings that David Buxton has dated to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries "before the massive impact of external influences that occurred in the seventeenth century." Subjects depicted in these paintings include the Biblical Kings

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

with a harp and

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

with a sword, and the Christian martyr Mammes "riding a rather comical lion."

Demographics

Based on figures published by 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 ...

in 2005, this woreda has an estimated total population of 197,372, of whom 98,296 are men and 99,076 are women; 7,205 or 3.65% of its population are urban dwellers, which is less than the Zone average of 8.9%. With an estimated area of 1,583.46 square kilometers, Dawuntna Delant has an estimated population density of 124.6 people per square kilometer, which is greater than the Zone average of 105.59. The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 145,401 in 35,527 households, of whom 73,832 were men and 71,569 were women; 4,166 or 2.87% of its population were urban dwellers. The largest ethnic group reported in Dawuntna Delant was the Amhara (99.96%).

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

was spoken as a first language by 99.96%. 89.04% of the population practiced

Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church () is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates bac ...

, and 10.94% of the population said they were

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

.''1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Amhara Region'', Vol. 1, part 1
, Tables 2.1, 2.7, 2.10, 2.13, 2.17, Annex II.2 (accessed 9 April 2009)

Notes

{{Districts of the Amhara Region Districts of Amhara Region