Photo credit: Francesco Bandarin, UNESCO
Known as the African Camelot, Fasil Ghebbi, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a fortress in Gondar, Ethiopia, built by the Emperor Fasilides in 1636. Its architectural style broke with the norm for the place and period, counting Nubian, Baroque and Arab styles among its influences. It included a banqueting hall, three churches and a library. With the gray stone, turrets and battlement walls, it resembles European medieval castles. Legend holds that the location of the castle was pointed out to Fasilides by a buffalo which led him there during a hunt.
