Metehara

Metehara is a town in central Ethiopia. Located in the Misraq Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region, it has a latitude and longitude of 08°54′N 39°55′E / 8.900°N 39.917°E / 8.900; 39.917Coordinates: 08°54′N 39°55′E / 8.900°N 39.917°E / 8.900; 39.917 with an elevation of 947 meters above sea level.

Access to Metehara includes a station on the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway. There is a Tuesday livestock market. Notable local landmarks include Metehara Mikael Bet church, Mount Fentale to the north and Lake Basaka to the south of the town.

History

Visitors to the area in the first decades of the 20th century frequently described the area a volcanic no-man's land between the Afar, Karayu Oromo and Amhara settlers. On the eve of the Italian invasion, a German named Neitzel had been granted a concession to cultivate cotton and coffee. Despite that, few people lived in the area until the arrival of the Dutch corporation Handelsvereeningung Amsterdam (HVA), which established a factory to process sugar at Metehara, after it had been expelled from Indonesia in 1954.