Meskel Square, Addis Ababa (must see)

Meskel Square is a square in the city of Addis Ababa. It is often a site for public gathering or for demonstrations and festivals, notably, the Meskel Festival from which it takes its name. Concerts, parades, and various other government and public events are also held there.

The word "Meskel" means "cross" and the festival commemorates the moment when the crucifix was revealed to Empress Helena of Constantinople. Following the fall of the monarchy in 1974, Meskel Square was renamed "Abiot" or Revolution Square. It was greatly expanded so that it could accommodate the annual Revolution Day and May Day parades on September 12 and May 1. Three gigantic portraits of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin were erected in the square. The national monument in memory of those massacred by the Derg regime in the "Red Terror" of the 1970s has been built at the eastern entrance to the square.