RAS DASHAN SKETCHED BY HENRY SALT

HENRY SALT (1780-1827)
Ras Dashen (4,550 m - 14,930 ft)
Ethiopia

In Mucculla in Abyssinia (Ethiopia), Handcolored aquatints 1809.
King Geroge III topographical collection

The mountain
Ras Dashan (4,550 m - 14,930 ft) also known as Ras Dashen or Ras Dejen, is the highest mountain in Ethiopia and fourteenth highest peak in Africa. Located in the Simien Mountains National Park in the Amhara Region North Gondar, The English form, "Ras Dashen" is a corruption of its Amharic name, "Ras Dejen", the term used by the Ethiopian Mapping Authority (EMA) which alludes to the traditional head or general who fights in front of the Emperor.
According to Erik Nilsson, Ras Dashan is the eastern peak of the rim of "an enormous volcano, the northern half of which is cut down about [a] thousand metres by numerous ravines, draining into the Takkazzi River." Its western counterpart is Mount Biuat (4,437 meters), separated by the valley of the Meshaha river. The mountain often sees violent snowfalls during the night, but given that day and night temperatures vary greatly, the snow is almost completely melted in a few hours (during the hottest period of the year), for the temperature may be over 5 degrees Celsius by midday. In winter snow falls rarely, since the majority of Ethiopia's yearly rainfall is in the summer, but if it does it usually lasts for weeks or months. The first recorded ascent by a European was in 1841, by French officers Ferret and Galinier. There is no verifiable evidence of earlier ascents by locals, but the summit climate and conditions are relatively hospitable, and there are nearby high altitude pastoral settlements. A small fort is still partially standing at around 4,300 metre SRTM data.

The artist
Henry Salt was an English artist, traveller, collector of antiquities, diplomat, and Egyptologist.
After a time as a portrait painter, Salt was permitted to travel with the English nobleman George Annesley, Viscount Valentia as his secretary and draughtsman after being recommended by Thomas Simon Butt. They started on an eastern tour in June 1802, traveling on the British East India Company's extra (chartered) ship Minerva to India via the Cape Colony. In 1805, Valentia sent Salt on a journey into the Abyssinian area (now Ethiopia) to meet with the ras of Tigré to open up trade relations on behalf of the English. While visiting there, Salt gained the respect of the ras. He returned to England on 26 October 1806. His journey home took him through Egypt where he met the pasha Mehmet Ali. Salt's paintings from the trip were used in Valentia's Voyages and Travels to India, published in 1809. The originals of all the drawings were kept by Valentia, as also the copper plates after Salt's death. The format and style of the plates is similar to Thomas and William Daniell's work, "Oriental Scenery" (1795-1808).
Salt returned to Ethiopia in 1809 on a government mission to explore trade and diplomatic links with the Tigrayan warlord Ras Wolde Selassie. Upon arrival, he was unable to meet with the king due to unrest in the country, so instead he went to stay with his friend the ras of Tigré. During this venture, Salt took on the side mission of verifying and correcting the information about the region reported by the Scottish traveler, James Bruce many years earlier. Salt came back to England in 1811 with numerous specimens of both plants and animals.

___________________________________________
2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

SEMIEN MOUNTAINS BY HENRY SALT

HENRY SALT (1780-1827)

Ras Dejen (4,550  m - 14,927 ft)

Mounts Biuat (4,437 m - 14,557 ft)

Kidis Yared (4,453 m - 14,609ft)

Ethiopia

In  Near the village of Asceriah in Abbyssinia,  hand colored aquatints, 1809 

 The mountains
Ras Dejen (4,550 m), Mounts Biuat (4,437 m) and Kidis Yared (4,453 m) are part of the Semien Mountains , in northern Ethiopia, north east of Gondar in Amhara region, are part of the Ethiopian Highlands. They are a World Heritage Site and include the Simien Mountains National Park.
The mountains consist of plateaus separated by valleys and rising to pinnacles.
Because of their geological origins, the mountains are almost unique, with only South Africa's Drakensberg having been formed in the same manner and thus appearing similar. Notable animals in the mountains include the walia ibex, gelada, and caracal. There are a few Ethiopian wolves.
The Semien Mountains were formed prior to the creation of the Rift Valley, from lava outpourings between 40 and 25 million years ago during the Oligocene period. The volcano is believed to have spread over more than 5000 m2 and resulted in a thick sequence of basaltic lava some 3,000-3,500 m thick that was deposited on Precambrian crystalline basement. The major part of the Semien Mountains consists of remnants of a Hawaiian-type shield volcano. The Kidus Yared peak is situated near the center of the shield volcano. Ras Dejen (4,533 m), Bwahit (4,430 m) and Silki (4,420 m) were formed from the outer core of this ancient volcano.
The extreme escarpment in Semien appears to be a precondition for the formation of the extended uplift of the whole mountain massif 75 million years ago. The dramatic views are due to this volcanic activity. Especially of note is the 2,000 m high escarpment extending in a southwest-northeast direction.
There are different types of soils as a result of the difference in geological formation, glaciations, topography, and climate. The Humic Andosol is the dominant soil type which is mainly found at an altitude of 3,000 m. The other types of soil are shallow Andosols, Lithosols, and Haplic Phaeozems that are mainly common in the area between 2,500 and 3,500 m. The Semien Mountains are highly eroded as a result of human land use practices and as a result of the topography of the area.

The artist 
 Henry Salt  was an English artist, traveller, collector of antiquities, diplomat, and Egyptologist.
After a  time as a portrait painter, Salt was permitted to travel with the English nobleman George Annesley, Viscount Valentia as his secretary and draughtsman after being recommended by Thomas Simon Butt. They started on an eastern tour in June 1802, traveling on the British East India Company's extra (chartered) ship Minerva to India via the Cape Colony. In 1805, Valentia sent Salt on a journey into the Abyssinian area (now Ethiopia) to meet with the ras of Tigré to open up trade relations on behalf of the English.  While visiting there, Salt gained the respect of the ras. He returned to England on 26 October 1806. His journey home took him through Egypt where he met the pasha Mehmet Ali. Salt's paintings from the trip were used in Valentia's Voyages and Travels to India, published in 1809. The originals of all the drawings were kept by Valentia, as also the copper plates after Salt's death. The format and style of the plates is similar to Thomas and William Daniell's work, "Oriental Scenery" (1795-1808).
Salt returned to Ethiopia in 1809 on a government mission to explore trade and diplomatic links with the Tigrayan warlord Ras Wolde Selassie. Upon arrival, he was unable to meet with the king due to unrest in the country, so instead he went to stay with his friend the ras of Tigré. During this venture, Salt took on the side mission of verifying and correcting the information about the region reported by the Scottish traveler, James Bruce many years earlier.  Salt came back to England in 1811 with numerous specimens of both plants and animals.

___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT ABUNA YOSEF BY RAY NESTOR

RAY NESTOR  (1888-1989),

Abuna Yosef (4,260 m-13,980 ft)

Ethiopia

In the Mountains of the moon, watercolour, private collection  

The mountains
Mountains of the Moon or Jibbel el Kumri is an ancient term referring to a legendary mountain or mountain range in east Africa at the source of the Nile River. Various identifications have been made in modern times.  O. G. S. Crawford identified this range with the Mount Abuna Yosef  (4,260 m - 13,976 ft) area in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia.
Abuna Yosef   (4,260 m - 13,976 ft) is a prominent mountain near the eastern escarpment of the Ethiopian Highlands ; it is the 6th tallest mountain in Ethiopia and the 19th highest of Africa. It is located in the Lasta massif in the Semien Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region.
People of the ancient world were long curious about the source of the Nile, especially Ancient Greek geographers. A number of expeditions up the Nile failed to find the source.
Eventually, a merchant named Diogenes reported that he had traveled inland from Rhapta in East Africa for twenty-five days and had found the source of the Nile. He reported it flowed from a group of massive mountains into a series of large lakes. He reported the natives called this range the Mountains of the Moon because of their snowcapped whiteness.
These reports were accepted as true by Ptolemy and other Greek and Roman geographers, and maps he produced indicated the reported location of the mountains. Late Arab geographers, despite having far more knowledge of Africa, also took the report at face value, and included the mountains in the same location given by Ptolemy.[3]
It was not until modern times that Europeans resumed their search for the source of the Nile. The Scottish explorer, James Bruce, who travelled to Gojjam, Ethiopia, in 1770, investigated the source of the Blue Nile there. He identified the "Mountains of the Moon" with Mount Amedamit, which he described surrounded the source of the Lesser Abay "in two semi-circles like a new moon ... and seem, by their shape, to deserve the name of mountains of the moon, such as was given by antiquity to mountains in the neighborhood of which the Nile was supposed to rise."
James Grant and John Speke in 1862 sought the source of the White Nile in the Great Lakes region. Henry Morton Stanley finally found glacier-capped mountains possibly fitting Diogenes's description in 1889 (they had eluded European explorers for so long due to often being shrouded in mist). Today known as the Rwenzori Mountains, the peaks are the source of some of the Nile's waters, but only a small fraction, and Diogenes would have crossed the Victoria Nile to reach them.
Many modern scholars doubt that these were the Mountains of the Moon described by Diogenes, some holding that his reports were wholly fabricated. G.W.B. Huntingford suggested in 1940 that the Mountain of the Moon should be identified with Mount Kilimanjaro, and "was subsequently ridiculed in J. Oliver Thompson's History of Ancient Geography published in 1948". Huntingford later noted that he was not alone in this theory, citing Sir Harry Johnston in 1911 and Dr. Gervase Mathew later in 1963 having made the same identification.

The painter

Ray Nestor was born in India in 1888. He came to Kenya in 1912 as a surveyor and was between 1932 and 1950 farmed at Kipkarren where he did most of his paintings. Ray Nestor modesty as a printer stood between him and the wider recognition of his work. He never courted publicity being content to record his impressions of a fascinating country and its diverse peoples for his own satisfaction and that of his friends. In all his time in Africa, Ray Nestor was seldom without his paints and sketch book, alert to capture the fugitive moment : an old woman in her beads and bangles drawing on her long pipe ; a dhow in full sail beyond the coral reef outside Mombasa harbour ; the stupendous view from his farm house over down and forest, rolling away towards Mount Elgon;

a pair of rhinos threading their way through the bush under the snows of Kilimandjaro.  These sketches are what they claim to be, with all their freshness sponteneity. Ray Nestor died in England in June 1989. 

__________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

AMBA ALAGI BY DANIEL HAVELL

DANIEL HAVELL  (1785-1822)

Amba Alagi  (3,438 m -11,280 ft )

Ethiopia 

 In The Vale of Calaat , Ethiopia,  engraving 1800, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

The mountain Amba Alagi is the one situated on extreme right of the engraving 

The mountain
Amba Alagi  (3,438 m -11,280 ft )is a mountain, or an Amba, in northern Ethiopia. Located in the Debubawi Zone of the Tigray Region, Amba Alagi dominates the roadway that runs past it from the city of Mek'ele south to Maychew. Because of its strategic location, Amba Alagi has been the location of several battles. As Anthony Mockler describes it,
It was [a] real amba, flat-topped, covered with crevices and canyons and caves, impregnable on the north and north-east where the Tug Gabat ran round its flanks through precipitous ravines, falling steeply away in the rear to the spur of Antalo, behind which lay the broad plain of Mahera.
Amba Alagi  (3,438 m -11,280 ft)is a mountain, or an amba, in northern Ethiopia. Located in the Debubawi Zone of the Tigray Region, Amba Alagi dominates the roadway that runs past it from the city of Mek'ele south to Maychew. Because of its strategic location, Amba Alagi has been the location of several battles. As Anthony Mockler describes it,
It was [a] real amba, flat-topped, covered with crevices and canyons and caves, impregnable on the north and north-east where the Tug Gabat ran round its flanks through precipitous ravines, falling steeply away in the rear to the spur of Antalo, behind which lay the broad plain of Mahera.

The artist
In older texts (and in the current Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), Daniel Havell is often claimed as the father of Robert (and sometimes of Luke as well); but more recent references generally place him as born in 1785, the son of Luke's brother Thomas, also a painter, who was born in 1762.  Daniel moved to London, and set up in partnership as an aquatint engraver with Robert Havell. Together they published aquatints of Twenty Four Views Taken in St. Helena (1809–10) after pictures by Henry Salt, and Twelve Picturesque Views of the River Thames (1812) from watercolours by William Havell. But the partnership did not last, and soon Daniel was working independently, including plates for Rudolph Ackermann's History of Cambridge (1815) and Ackermann's history of various Public Schools including Eton, Winchester and Rugby (1816), as well as a celebrated view of St Paul's Cathedral (1818) and various other London landmarks for Ackermann's Repository of Arts. Other subjects included topographical views of Devon, and of North Wales; and views of naval engagements. Havell's final work was for E.W. Brayley's Historical and descriptive accounts of the theatres of London (1826) "illustrated with a view of each theatre, elegantly coloured, drawn and engraved by the late Daniel Havell."
The Daniel Havell who was the son of Thomas Havell was baptised on 30 November 1786 at St Mary's, Reading; married Maria Wilmot on 5 June 1813 at St James's in Paddington; and was buried on 19 May 1822 at Kingston upon Thames, his occupation given as "artist".

RAS DASHAN PHOTOGRAPHED BY ISS ASTRONAUTS CREW

ISS ASTRONAUTS (EXPEDITION 16)

Ras Dashan  (4,550m- 14,928 ft)

Ethiopia

Courtesy: NASA /ESA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech

The mountain 

Ras Dashan (4,550m-14,928 ft) alternatively  Ras Dejen rās dejen or rās dashen, meaning "head guard" in Amharic, is the highest mountain in Ethiopia and tenth highest mountain of Africa. Part of Simien Mountains National Park ans Simien Range, located in the Gondar, Amhara Region, the more common form of name, "Ras Dashan" is a corruption of its Amharic name, "Ras Dejen", used by the system of the Ethiopian Mapping Authority (EMA) which means "the general who fights in front of the Emperor".

According to Erik Nilsson, Ras Dejen is the eastern peak of the rim of "an enormous volcano, the northern half of which is cut down about [a] thousand metres by numerous ravines, draining into the Takkazzi River." Its western counterpart is Mount Biuat (4,510 meters), separated by the valley of the Meshaha river. The mountain is often place to violent snowfalls during the night, but, since daily and night temperatures vary greatly, the snow is almost completely melted in a few hours (during the hottest period of the year) since temperature may be over 5° celsius by midday. In winter snow falls rarely, since the majority of yearly rainfalls in Ethiopia are in the summer, but if it does it usually lasts for weeks or months.

The first recorded ascent by a Eurasian was in 1841, by the French officers Ferret and Galinier. There is no verifiable evidence of earlier ascents by locals, but the summit climate and conditions are relatively hospitable, and there are nearby high altitude pastoral settlements. A small fort still partially standing at around 4,300 Meter SRTM data.

The Semien Mountains are the highest parts of the Ethiopian Plateau (more than 2,000m -6,560 ft). They are surrounded by a steep, ragged escarpment (step), with dramatic vertical cliffs, pinnacles, and rock spires. Included in the range is the highest point in Ethiopia, Ras Dashen at 4,533m -14,926 ft). The plateau and surrounding areas are made up of basalt rock from massive, flood-like eruptions of lava; these flood basalts are probably more than 3,000 meters thick.

The lavas erupted quickly (in about one million years) 31 million years ago, as the tectonic plate carrying Ethiopia passed above what is known as the Afar hotspot, a localized spot of intense heat or magma production that is not at a tectonic plate boundary. As the tectonic plate passed over the hotspot, the general region of Ethiopia rose in elevation. The uplift encouraged the erosion that cut the highly dramatic canyons that ring the plateau.

Although the plateau lies in the latitude of the Sahara–Arabia deserts, its high altitude makes for a cool, wet climate. In fact, the Semien Mountains are one of the few places in Africa to regularly receive snow, and they receive plentiful rainfall (more than 1,280 millimeters - 55 inches). The moderate climate is shown by light green vegetation on the mountains, compared with the brown canyons, which are hot and dry. The green tinge on the biggest escarpment (trending across the bottom third of the image) is also vegetation, showing that this part of the escarpment also receives more rain than other parts of the escarpment wall. A major canyon cuts the flatter plateau surface (image center), with several more surrounding the plateau. These canyons are hot because they reach low altitudes, more than 2,000 meters below the plateau surface.

The Semien Mountains National Park has been declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for its rugged beauty. In addition, several extremely rare species are found here, such as the Gelada baboon, which has a thick coat to protect against the cold; the critically endangered Walia ibex, which has long, heavy scimitar-like horns; and the Ethiopian wolf, also known as the Semien jackal, which is one of the rarest, and perhaps most endangered canid on Earth.

Source: 
- NASA

The photographer 

This astronaut photograph ISS016-E-10784 was acquired on November 16, 2007, with a Kodak 760C digital camera fitted with a 180 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment. The image was taken by the astronauts crew of the Expedition 16 , and it is provided by the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of the Earth. Caption by M. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson, NASA-JSC.