Lay Gayint () is a

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 ...

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

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 ...

, Lay Gayint is bordered on the south by Tach Gayint and

Simada Simada (Amharic: ስማዳ) is a Districts of Ethiopia, woreda in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Debub Gondar Zone, Simada is bordered on the southeast by the Bashilo River which separates it from the Debub Wollo Zone, on the southwe ...

, on the southwest by

Misraq Este Misraq Este (Amharic: ምሥራቅ እስቴ) is one of the Districts of Ethiopia, woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Debub Gondar Zone, Misraq Este is bordered on the south by the Abay River which separates it from the Misraq ...

, on the west by

Farta Farta (Amharic: ፋርጣ) is a woreda in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Debub Gondar Zone, Farta is bordered on the south by Misraq Este, on the west by Fogera, on the north by Ebenat and on the east by Guna Woreda (whose center is ...

, on the north by Ebenat, and on the east by 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 ...

. The administrative center is

Nefas Mewcha Nefas Mewcha is a town in northern Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 3150 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of Lay Gayint woreda. ...

; other towns in Lay Guyint include Gobgob and Sali. The altitude of this woreda varies from above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. The annual rainfall is erratically distributed and varies from . A notable landmark in Lay Guyint is the church of the village of Betlehem, about southeast of

Debre Tabor Debre Tabor (, lit. "Mount Tabor") is a town and woreda in northern Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, about 100 kilometers southeast of Gondar and 50 kilometers east of Lake Tana, this historic town has a lat ...

; inside an ordinary round church structure is an ancient church with a trussed roof of identical construction as the church of

Debre Damo Debre Dammo (), Däbrä Dammo (with the geminated -''mm''-) in Tigrinya or Däbrä Damo in later Amharic appellations (also spelled Debre Damo, Dabra Dāmmo or Däbrä Dammo), is the name of a flat-topped mountain, or amba, and a 6th-century mo ...

. The writer Thomas Pakenham was the first non-Ethiopian to visit this church in 1955.

Notable figures

Notable figures from this small town include

Ambachew Mekonnen Ambachew Mekonnen (; – 22 June 2019) was an Ethiopian politician and economist who served as the president of the Amhara Region of Ethiopia from March 2019 until his assassination in a coup attempt on June 22, 2019. Life Ambachew Mekonnen ...

who served as the President of the Amhara regional state up until his murder during an attempted coup.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 national census conducted 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 ...

of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 206,499, an increase of 23.56% over the 1994 census, of whom 104,401 are men and 102,098 women; 22,825 or 11.05% are urban inhabitants. With an area of , Lay Gayint has a population density of , which is less than the Zone average of 145.56 persons per square kilometer. A total of 46,038 households were counted in this woreda, resulting in an average of 4.49 persons to a household, and 44,494 housing units. The majority of the inhabitants 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 ...

, with 97.47% reporting that as their religion, while 2.47% 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 ...

. The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 167,122 in 33,681 households, of whom 84,585 were men and 82,537 were women; 13,583 or 8.13% of its population were urban dwellers. The largest ethnic group reported in Lay Guyint was the Amhara (99.88%).

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 99.84%. The majority 97.6% of the population practiced

with 97.6% professing that belief, while 2.27% of the population said they were

.''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