Yechila (also Yechilay or Chilay) is a town in northern

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

Maekelay Zone The Central Zone () is a zone in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Towns and cities in the Central Zone include Axum and Adwa, as well as the historically significant village of Yeha and the town of Tembien Abiyi Adi. The Central Zone is bordere ...

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 ...

, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1571 meters above sea level. It is located in the Mearey- tabia and is the administrative center of

Abergele Abergele (; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community, situated on the north coast of Wales between the holiday resorts of Colwyn Bay and Rhyl, in Conwy County Borough. It lies within the historic counties of Wales, historic county b ...

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 ...

. Records provided at the Nordic Africa Institute website mention a rock-hewn church dedicated to

Abuna Aregawi Abuna Aregawi (also called Za-Mika'el Aragawi) was a sixth-century Syrian monk and canonized by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, as well as by the Ethiopian Catholic Church, as well as the Eritrean Orthodox Church. He is one of the Nin ...

in the town. The British explorer Henry Salt camped overnight outside this town during his second journey through Ethiopia in 1809. Salt (who calls the settlement "Shela") records entering the province of Abergele the next day -- apparently the town was not part of the province at the time -- as well as finding a species of water cress growing in the area. 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 ...

in 2005, Yechila has an estimated total population of 2,833 of whom 1,371 are men and 1,462 are women.CSA 2005 National Statistics
Table B.4 The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 1,556 of whom 697 were men and 859 were women.

Notes

Populated places in the Tigray Region {{Tigray-geo-stub