THE OMO VALLEY OF ETHIOPIA

THE OMO VALLEY OF ETHIOPIA
Ethiopia is a country of endless cultural and geographical diversity...from the country’s natural attraction to its most colorful customs and ceremonies. The cornucopia of natural beauty that blesses Ethiopia offers an astonishing variety of landscapes: Afro-Alpine highlands soaring to around 4,620 meters, deserts sprinkled with salt flats and yellow sulfur, lakes with rare and beautiful birds, moors and mountains, the splendor of the Great Rift valley, White-water rivers, Savannah teeming with game, giant water falls, dense and lush jungle. It would be facile to portray South Omo as some kind of living Museum. Four of Africa's major linguistic groups are represented in the region, including the so-called Omotic-speakers. All in all, depending on where one draws the lines, as many as two dozen different tribes occupy South Omo, some numbering tens of thousands, others no more than 500, each one of them culturally unique. The largest and least characteristics of these group is the Konso, skilled agriculturists who occupy the southern extension of the highlands, and who are noted for their unusual practice of sculpting eerie wooden statues to mark their grave. The most renowned of the Omotic-speakers are the Mursi, famed for their practice of inserting large clay plates in the lower lips of the women. Other important groups of the South Omo include the Hammer, Benna, Ari and Karo, whose cultures and quirks or adornment- body scarring, body painting and the like are points of interest