Asaita

Asaita, historically called Aussa or Awsa, lies in the Afar lowlands of north-eastern Ethiopia, on the Awash plain at a low elevation. It sits at a rock-bound site beside the Awash and Hadar river systems, and the hot, arid country around it is grazed by pastoral Afar herders. To the south-east, along the edge of the Danakil Desert, salt lakes stretch toward the Djibouti border, and the Awash drains into Lake Abbe.

Aussa was once home to the Harla people, and farming was practised there by the fourteenth century, which made it unusual within the largely pastoral Afar region. The town also sheltered mutineers from the Harari kingdom. In the mid-sixteenth century it appeared as part of the Harar-based Adal Sultanate, and in 1577 it became that sultanate's capital. After Adal declined, the Imamate of Aussa ruled the southern Afar country, and in the eighteenth century the Mudaito dynasty founded the Aussa Sultanate.