St Marys Church and Emperor Menelik’s former Capital in the Entoto Mountains. The first church and humble palace where built circa 1870, from local earth/clay and straw as cob and daub on timber. Ceilings on the underside of the rafters of split bamboo tied by leather binders with thatch above.

The large semi-circular porch overhang to the palace and the layers of lime wash on the earth mortars offering weather protection in the rainy season.

Earth mortars on timber frames are the traditional and current building technique still found over all of northern Ethiopia