Harar Jugol, the Fortified Historic Town

Harar Jugol is the fortified historic core of the city of Harar in eastern Ethiopia, noted for its closely packed traditional houses, narrow alleys and city walls. The town is an important centre of Islamic culture in the Horn of Africa with a long urban history.

Inside the walls are numerous mosques, shrines and closely arranged domestic compounds that form a dense urban fabric. The city retains traditional crafts, markets and family houses with distinctive Harari architecture.

Harar grew as an Islamic trading and cultural centre from the medieval period and continued as an important regional city in later centuries. The walled enclosure and surviving urban structures reflect centuries of habitation and local urban development.

The historic core sits in the Harari Region of eastern Ethiopia, on a plateau above the surrounding plains, and functions as the historic heart of the modern city of Harar.

• Walled city layout: The old city is enclosed by traditional stone and adobe walls with multiple gates; narrow lanes and historic houses are concentrated inside the walls.
• Hyena feeding: A long-established cultural practice is the evening feeding of hyenas at the town edge, an attraction that illustrates continuing local traditions.