# Harar Jugol: 368 Alleys, 82 Mosques and the Hyena Men > A guide to Islam's fourth-holiest city: wandering the walled Jugol, coffee and khat culture, Rimbaud's house, and the nightly hyena feeding — plus how to get there. Source: https://ethiopiaunlocked.com/harar-old-walled-city-guide/ Language: en Machine-readable index: https://ethiopiaunlocked.com/llms.txt There is a city in eastern Ethiopia where the walls have kept out armies but never ideas — where 82 mosques share one square kilometre with churning coffee markets, where a French poet ran guns and grew old, and where every night, at the edge of the lamplight, wild hyenas pad in from the dark to be fed by hand. Harar is unlike anywhere in Ethiopia — arguably anywhere at all. ## Key facts - **Location:** Eastern Ethiopia, 1,885 m; 525 km from Addis - **Getting there:** Fly Addis → Dire Dawa (1 hr) + 1.5 hr drive - **The old city:** Jugol: 1 km², 368 alleys, 82 mosques, 5 gates - **Famous for:** Hyena feeding, coffee, Rimbaud, walled-city life - **Time needed:** Two nights ideal - **UNESCO status:** World Heritage since 2006 ## Jugol: getting lost is the itinerary Harar's old city — **Jugol** — is a walled square kilometre of 368 alleys that were never planned, only accreted over a thousand years. The joy is surrendering to it: lanes narrow to shoulder width, walls painted turquoise, lilac and lime, doorways framing courtyards where women sort chillies and weave baskets. Landmarks to steer by: the 16th-century **Grand Jami Mosque**, the **Feres Magala** square, and the five historic gates. Hire a local guide for your first morning (~US$15–20, arranged via any hotel) to decode the shrine culture and the basket-hung interiors of a traditional **Harari house** — then spend the afternoon deliberately guideless. ## The hyena men After dark, outside the walls (traditionally at two sites, near Fallana Gate and the shrine of Aw Ansar), the **hyena men** call spotted hyenas out of the ravines by name. The practice began — the story goes — as a pact: feed the hyenas porridge during famine and they'd spare the livestock. Today it's meat from a stick, and if you kneel, from a stick held in *your* hand, with a wild apex predator's jaws a hand-span from your face. It is not a zoo trick; the animals come and go freely. Go with a guide around 7pm, pay the fee, and keep your movements slow. ## Coffee, khat and Rimbaud Harar coffee is among the most prized origins on Earth — wild-adjacent, wine-and-blueberry notes, dried in the sun on rooftops you'll walk past. Drink it at a traditional house ceremony or modern roasters in the new town. The city's other crop, **khat**, drives a frenetic morning market at Awaday nearby — fascinating to see, entirely optional to try. And in a restored Indian-merchant mansion, the **Rimbaud House** museum tells the strange second act of Arthur Rimbaud, who abandoned poetry at 21 and spent his last decade here trading coffee and guns. The rooftop view over Jugol's tin-and-thatch sea is the best in town. ## Markets and the eastern wall The **Gidir Magala** (main market) and the recycling market — where oil drums become stoves and tyres become sandals — show Harar's genius for reuse. Outside Erer Gate, camel caravans still arrive from the Somali lowlands. Climb to the wall's eastern viewpoint at sunset when the whole city glows ochre and the calls to prayer overlap from eighty minarets. ## Practicalities - **Sleep inside Jugol:** traditional Harari guesthouses (Zubeyda, Anisa) from ~US$25 — basket-lined walls, courtyard breakfasts. Comfortable modern hotels (Wonderland, Heritage Plaza) sit just outside. - **Eat:** try *harira* soup during Ramadan evenings, stuffed *sambusas*, and the Harari version of fetira with honey. - **Dress & manners:** modest dress reads as respect in this conservative town; ask before photographing people, and avoid pointing cameras into courtyards. - **Combine:** Awash National Park en route by road, or the camel market at Babille (Mondays & Thursdays). ## Frequently asked questions Is the hyena feeding in Harar safe (and real)? It's real, old and remarkably safe. Harari tradition of feeding hyenas goes back generations — the animals are wild but habituated, arriving nightly at spots outside the walls. The hyena men feed them meat from sticks (sometimes held in their own mouths) and will let you try, kneeling beside them. Hyenas here have never harmed a visitor; still, follow instructions exactly. Expect to pay ~Br 300–500 per group. Why is Harar considered Islam's fourth holiest city? Because of its extraordinary density of sacred sites — 82 mosques (some from the 10th century) and over 100 shrines packed into one square kilometre — and its centuries as a centre of Islamic scholarship in the Horn of Africa. The title is traditional rather than universal doctrine, but walk Jugol's alleys at maghrib and you'll understand it. How do I get to Harar from Addis Ababa? Fly to Dire Dawa (daily, ~1 hour), then it's a beautiful 90-minute drive up into the hills — hotels arrange transfers (~US$25) or shared minibuses run constantly. Overlanding from Addis is a long 8–10 hour day on a good highway through Awash National Park; doable, but flying preserves your energy for the alleys.