By Xinhua
Addis Ababa : Some three medieval Muslim towns, now ruins, have been discovered in north Ethiopia's Amhara State.
The towns were discovered at the beginning of this year, according to a press release by the country's Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage.
Some of the buildings of the towns are several meters high and include mosques, dwellings and surrounding walls, it said.
The towns are called Asberi, Masal and Nora, located on the escarpment of the Rift Valley.
Probably these urban sites belong to the period from the 14th century up to the beginning of the 15th century contemporaneous with the flourishing of the Kingdom of Ifat, the authority said.
The Ifat Kingdom controlled the trade route between the Christian Ethiopian Highlands, the Muslim ports, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the time.
The sites are now approved as the most important Muslim archaeological remains in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia, one of the oldest nations in the world, is blessed with natural and cultural heritage sites.