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 south of Bishoftu. With a height of , 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.

History

thumb|left|Hermits performing an exorcism on Mount Zuqualla.

thumb|left|Crater lake on Mount Zuqualla.

During the Paleolithic era, the Melka Kunture fossil site was covered by volcanic deposits as a result of the eruption of Mount Zuqualla.

In the middles ages, this region was part of the Ifat Sultanate and had a considerable Muslim population until the region was conquered by Amda Seyon I. In 1450, Mount Zuqualla appears on the Fra Mauro map. 16th century Arab writer Arab Faqih said that the territory around Mount Zuqualla was inhabited by a tribe of "polytheists" known as the Maya.

The lake in the crater has an island monastery, said to have been founded by Gebre Menfes Kidus 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 ibn Ibrahim of Adal Sultanate in 1531; two churches were later built at the monastery, one dedicated to Gebre Menfes Kidus 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. 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."

References

  • Aerial photo of Mount Zuquala and its crater lake