Dire Dawa – Founded with the railway's arrival in 1902
Dire Dawa owes its existence to a railway. Because the Addis Ababa–Djibouti line could not climb the steep route to Harar, Emperor Menelik II agreed in 1896 that the first section should end at a village at the foot of the mountains. The railway reached this spot on 24 December 1902, the date often seen as the city's founding day.
The area itself is much older: rock paintings and Stone Age tools have been found in the nearby Porc-Épic cave. In medieval times it belonged to the Adal Sultanate and later to the Emirate of Harar. The complete railway line was inaugurated in 1917. Today Dire Dawa is one of Ethiopia's two chartered cities. Do you have memories of the railway or old photos? Share them with the community.