The Caves of Ethiopia and the History of their Exploration
Dave Catlin
Ethiopia has caves interwoven into its history and culture. Starting with the many prehistoric rock shelters complete with paintings, you'll also find caves still the lairs of wild beasts or caverns interwoven into Christian and Muslim creeds. You'll find caves that were munition dumps, caves that were hideouts from enemies, and caves which show the splendour of the natural world and provide water to a village. You'll find caves used as burial grounds for monks and those used to dump bodies of conflict victims. There are underground caverns which tell the geological story of the Rift Valley, the African continent, and humankind. And for the cave explorer, it is difficult to think that there is anywhere else in the world where the human and speleological worlds intertwine more.
Dave Catlin recounts the history of caving expeditions and caves in Ethiopia, and of Ethiopian cavers. There are now more than 290 documented caves in Ethiopia, along with more than 80 Enkuftus (potholes).
Dave Catlin was 23, and had just completed an engineering degree at Bradford University, when he saw an advert to join a caving expedition to Ethiopia in the caving magazine, Descent. He applied to join the 1972 British Speleological Expedition to Ethiopia (BSEE) and, along with six other cavers, drove from Preston to Ethiopia in a British Leyland Austin K9 (an ex-Royal Air Force ambulance). The expedition discovered 6.1km of new passages at Sof Omar cave, extending its length to 15.1km, the longest cave in Africa at that time. The expedition surveyed many other caves in Bale, Harar, Dire Dawa and Tigray.
Unable to attend the event in person? Register for an online ticket to be sent a link to a Zoom broadcast of the live event.
