Debre Tabor is a town in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, about 100 kilometers southeast of Gondar, and 50 kilometers E of Lake Tana. The town is named for the Biblical Mount Tabor ("Debre Tabor" in Amharic means "Mount Tabor"). The presence of at least 48 springs in the area contributed to the development of Debre Tabor. Amhara (አማራ) is one of the nine ethnic divisions (kililoch) of Ethiopia, containing the homeland of the Amhara people. ... Gondar (less commonly spelled Gonder) was the old imperial capital of Ethiopia and the historic Begemder province, now part of the Amhara region. ... Lake Tana from space, April 1991 Lake Tana (also spelled Tana; older spellings include Tsana and Dambea) is the source of the Blue Nile and is the largest lake in Ethiopia. ... Mount Tabor may refer to a number of places: Mount Tabor is a hill in the Holy Land near Nazareth. ... Amharic (አማርኛ) is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia. ... Carl Larsson, VÃ¥ren, 1907 Spring is one of the four seasons of temperate zones. ...

Authorities differ over the facts of its founding. Mordechai Abir states that it was founded by Ras Ali I;¹ however, Richard Pankhurst gives a detailed account of its foundation by Ras Gugsa, and includes the tradition that the location was selected with supernatural help.² In either case, Debre Tabor was the seat of the Regents of the Emperor in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, from which periods several churches and the ruins of two palaces survive. Gugsa of Yejju (died 23 May 1825) was a Ras of Begemder from 1798 until his death), and Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia. ... The Emperor of Ethiopia (Amharic ንጉሠ ነገሥት, niguse negest, King of Kings) was the hereditary ruler of Ethiopia until the abolition of the monarchy in 1975. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... A church building is a building used in Christian worship. ... The quintessential medieval European palace: Palais de la Cité, in Paris, the royal palace of France. ...

Debre Tabor was sacked by an army from the province of Lasta in 1835.³ The Battle of Debre Tabor was fought nearby on February 6, 1842; although Dejazmach Wube Haile Maryam and his allies defeated the armies of Ras Ali II and sacked Debre Tabor once again, they were surprised while celebrating their victory by Birru Aligaz, an ally of Ras Ali II, who captured Wube and his son and extracted concessions from them in return for their release.⁴ 1835 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... February 6 is the 37th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

Ras Ali II built four churches in Debre Tabor: Iyasus on the mountain to the southeast, Ennatitu Maryam and Legitu Maryam to the east, and Tegur Mikael to the north. A second palace was built for his mother, the Empress Mennen Liben Amede, which was not as large as Ras Ali's.⁵

Notes

1. Mordechai Abir, Ethiopia: Era of the Princes (London: Longmans, 1968), p.30.
2. Richard P.K. Pankhurst, History of Ethiopian Towns (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1982), p. 265.
3. Pankhurst, Ethiopian Towns, p. 266.
4. Abir, Era of Princes, pp. 111f; Pankhurst, Ethiopian Towns, p. 268.
5. Pankhurst, Ethiopian Towns, pp. 271ff.