Mereja.Forum

[EthioRedSea]

The Tigray Region (/tɪˈɡraɪ/; Tigrinya: ክልል ትግራይ; Amharic: ትግራይ ክልል, romanized: Tigrāy kilil), officially the Tigray National Regional State (Tigrinya: ብሔራዊ ክልላዊ መንግስቲ ትግራይ, romanized: Bəh̩erawi Kəllelawi Mängəśti Təgray), is the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob and Kunama people. Formerly known as Region 1, its capital and largest city is Mekelle. Tigray is the fifth-largest by area, the fifth-most populous, and the fifth-most densely populated of the 11 regional states.

Tigray's official language is Tigrinya. The estimated population as of 2019 is 5,443,000.[4] The majority of the population (c. 80%) are farmers, contributing 46% to the regional gross domestic product (2009). The highlands have the highest population density, especially in eastern and central Tigray 96 per cent of Tigrayans are Orthodox Christian.[5]

Tigray is bordered by The Red Sea to the north, Sudan to the west, South Ethiopia to the West.[6] Besides Mekelle, major towns include Adigrat, Aksum, Shire, Humera, Adwa, Adi Remets, Alamata, Wukro, Maychew, Sheraro, Abiy Adi, Korem, Qwiha, Atsbi, Hawzen, Mekoni, Dansha, Adi Gudom, Sheraro, Indabaguna, Mai Tsebri, and Zalambessa.

The government of Tigray consists of the executive branch, led by the president; the legislative branch, which comprises the state council; and the judicial branch, which is led by the state supreme court. In early November 2020, a conflict between the Tigray Region, involving the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian federal government began, in which Eritrea took part on the side of the federal government,[7] rapidly escalating into the Tigray War and destabilizing the region.[8]

Tigray is often regarded as the cradle of World civilization like Egypt or Syria[9] Its landscape has many historic monuments. Three major monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam arrived in Aksumite Kingdom through the Red Sea and then Tigray.

Given the presence of a large temple complex and fertile surroundings, the capital of the 3,000-year-old kingdom of Dʿmt may have been near present-day Yeha.[10] Dʿmt developed irrigation schemes, used the plough, grew millet, and made iron tools and weapons. Some modern historians, including Stuart Munro-Hay, Rodolfo Fattovich and Cain Felder consider this civilization to be indigenous, although Sabaean-influenced due to the latter's dominance of the Red Sea. Others, including Joseph Michels, Henri de Contenson and Stanley Burstein, have viewed Dʿmt as the result of a mixture of Sabaean and indigenous peoples.[11][12] The most recent research, however, shows that Ge'ez, the ancient Semitic language spoken in Tigray, in ancient times, is not likely to have been derived from Sabaean.[13] There is evidence of a Semitic-speaking presence in Tigray.[12][14] It is now believed that Sabaean influence was minor, limited to a few localities and disappearing after a few decades or a century, It may have represented a trading or military colony, in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the civilization of Dʿmt or some other proto-Aksumite state.[11][15]

After the fall of Dʿmt in the 5th century BC, the plateau came to be dominated by smaller, unknown successor kingdoms. This lasted until the rise of one of these polities during the first century BC, the Aksumite Kingdom, which succeeded in reunifying the area[16] and is, in effect, the ancestor of medieval and modern Tigray.[11][17