Wehni

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Wehni is the name of a mountain in Ethiopia, where most of the male heirs were interned on the imperial throne - often for life. He was the last of three mountains ( or amba ), which served this purpose. The rest were Debre Damo and Amba Geshen.

From an unspecified time in history, there was a tradition that, as soon as an emperor ascended the throne, his brothers and other male relatives led to the royal prison where they either died or lived up to their own throne. The mountain Wehni was used for the first time by Fasilides as a prison. He carried his son Dawit there after he had led an insurrection.

During the Zemene Mesafint you took the prison on the mountain out of service. This happened in the 1790s, such as Samuel Gobat by a man named Tekla Selassie, " a relative of the King" ( here is meant Emperor of Ethiopia), learned.

James Bruce was the first to mention the royal prison. However, the first European who visited the place in 1955 Thomas Pakenham. This leads to that at the beginning of his search for this half- forgotten complex three places in the province Begemder (now a part of Amhara ) were considered: the Ethiopia expert Steven Wright believed he lay three days' journey west of Gonder, while the local knowledge to Colonel Shifferaw of two possible locations in the East reported. Pakenhams investigations revealed that he was in the mountains northeast of Emfraz. He describes his first sight of this:

Pakenham found at the foot of the mountain village, "that hardly deserved the name". The inhabitants were indeed " poor and needy " when he was investigating the Church of the place, but he found some paintings that he dated to the 17th century. " Although fifty years after Fasil, but still an exciting testament to the importance Wehnis at that time. Even if the church and the village were now expired, it is obvious that they had once enjoyed royal support as generously as Gondar itself "

It succeeded Pakenham due to a landslide in the previous 30 years not to climb the mountain Wehni. Equipped with climbing equipment, he made a few months later a further unsuccessful start. He concludes his trip report on Ethiopia, with a description of the building on the summit, as he saw them from the air. Previously, he had the pilot of the flight Gondar - can convince Addis Ababa, fly past there and around the peak.

In 2002, he was boarded by members of the global HotRock climbing expedition.

The royal prison on the top Wehnis left by the reports of Bruce 's influence in English literature. Dr. Samuel Johnson, it served as inspiration for the plot of his story: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia.