Nefas Mewcha
Encyclopedia
Nefas Mewcha is a town in northern Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. Located in the Debub Gondar Zone
Debub Gondar Zone
Debub Gondar is a Zone in the Ethiopian Amhara Region. 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 name for the local province....

 of the Amhara Region
Amhara Region
Amhara is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia, containing the homeland of the Amhara people. Previously known as Region 3, its capital is Bahir Dar....

, this town has a has a latitude and longitude of 11°44′N 38°28′E and an elevation of 3120 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of Lay Gayint
Lay Gayint
Lay Gayint is one of the 105 woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Debub Gondar Zone, Lay Gayint is bordered on the south by Tach Gayint, on the southwest by Este, on the west by Farta, on the north by Ebenat, and on the east by the Wag Hemra Zone...

 woreda
Woreda
Woreda is an administrative division of Ethiopia , equivalent to a district . Woredas are composed of a number of Kebele, or neighborhood associations, which are the smallest unit of local government in Ethiopia...

.

Nefas Mewcha lies on the main Debre Tabor
Debre Tabor
Debre Tabor is a town and a woreda in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, about 100 kilometers southeast of Gondar and 50 kilometers east of Lake Tana, this historic town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 2706 meters above...

 - Weldiya
Weldiya
Weldiya is a hillside market town, capital of the Semien Wollo Zone, and woreda in northern Ethiopia. Located north of Dessie and southeast of Lalibela in the Amhara Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 2112 meters above sea level.A notable landmark is the church...

 highway (also known as the Chinese road), providing it with an all-year link to the Zonal capital of Weldiya.

History

One of the earliest mentions of Nefas Mewcha is in the Royal chronicle of Emperor Susenyos
Susenyos of Ethiopia
Susenyos was of Ethiopia...

, where the Emperor stopped during his campaign against the rebel Yona'el in 1620.

The Scots explorer James Bruce
James Bruce
James Bruce was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia, where he traced the origins of the Blue Nile.-Youth:...

, who visited Ethiopia in the early 1770s, described Nefas Mewcha as "in the farthest limits" of the province of Begemder
Begemder
Begemder was a province in the northwestern part of Ethiopia. There are several proposed etymologies for this name...

 at the time, with the Wollo Oromo ruling the territories "behind this". In the last years of his reign, emperor Iyoas I
Iyoas I of Ethiopia
Iyoas I or Joas I was of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty...

 fought a battle against the governor of Begemder, Ya Mariam Bariaw, who had killed his uncle Birale in an earlier battle. Ya Mariam Bariaw was defeated, and severely wounded; he fled to the nearby Wollo, who handed Ya Mariam Bariaw back to the half-Oromo Emperor for punishment.

By 1964, Nefas Mewcha was the administrative center of Gayint awraja.

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency
Central Statistical Agency (Ethiopia)
The Central Statistical Agency is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth, as well as to act as an official training center in that field. It is part of the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and...

in 2005, Nefas Mewcha has an estimated total population of 18,691, of whom 9,009 are men and 9,682 were women. The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 10,808, of whom 4,780 were men and 6,068 were women.
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