Mount Zuqualla (also spelled Zuquala, Zikwala or Chuqqaala) is an extinct volcano in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Situated in Ada'a Chukala woreda of the (East) Shewa Zone, it rises from the plain 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Bishoftu. With a height of 2,989 metres (9,806 ft), it is known for its crater lake, lake Dembel, an elliptical crater lake with a maximum diameter of about one kilometre, but the trail around the crater is about 6 km long.[2]
History
Hermits performing an exorcism on Mount Zuqualla.Crater lake on Mount Zuqualla.
In the middles ages, this region was part of the Ifat Sultanate.[3] According to historian Enrico Cerulli, in the 13th century the region had a considerable Muslim population until the Abyssinian Christian invasion into the area.[4] In 1450 mount Zuqualla appears on the Fra Mauro map.[5] Later sixteenth century Adalite writer Arab Faqih stated the Mayan territory was situated at Mount Zuqualla in Abyssinia.[6]
Today both the mountain and the lake is a holy site to the Oromo living nearby.[7] The ambivalent attitude regarding the holiness of the mountain is seen in the Oromo proverb: "Those who live far away worship it, those who live nearby plow it."
The lake in the crater has an island Tulluu Irreechaa, said to have been founded by Abba Gadaa of Tuulama on the site of a hermitage used by Saint Mercurius. This monastery was destroyed, and a church at the foot of the mountain looted, by Imam Ahmad Gragn of Adal Sultanate in 1531; two churches were later built at the monastery, one dedicated to St Gebre Menfas built by Menelik II in 1880 and designed by the Italian Sebastian Castagna, and the other dedicated to Kidane Mihret built during the reign of Haile Selassie.[2] Various other holy sites are found around the mountain, mostly rock formations, while the monastery is the site of a biannual festival.
The explorers Orazio Antinori, Antonelli and Antonio Cecchi used Zuqualla to determine various geographical locations in May 1881. Dr Scott, on behalf of Cambridge University and the British Museum, secured a large and valuable entomological collection near Zuqualla in 1926. Three of the leaders of the attempted 1960 Ethiopian coup fled to Zuqualla from the capital, where the Moja family had land. Two of them lost their lives 24 December while Mengistu Neway, seriously wounded, was captured and brought to the capital for trial.[2]
