Barara

Barara belongs to Shewa, a historic highland region of central Ethiopia and once an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian empire. Its rugged districts of Menz and Tegulet held an Amhara cultural landscape, and the rich pastures supported horses, cattle and mules. Towns occupied defensible positions between the plateau and the lowlands, so Shewa served both as a refuge and as a political base linking the central highlands with the routes toward the Muslim lowlands and the southern frontiers.

After Aksum declined in the tenth century, central Shewa became a principal refuge for the Aksumite royal line. Tradition says King Anbesa Wudm fled there to escape Queen Gudit. Christianity had probably entered the region between the fourth and seventh centuries through trade, monastic travel and missionaries from Aksum. In 1270, Yekuno Amlak, a prince from the Shewan branch of the Aksumite lineage, overthrew the Zagwe dynasty and restored the Solomonic line. Later Shewan rulers made fortified centres such as Ankober and Debre Berhan into the seats of their power, and Sahle Selassie rebuilt Debre Berhan, expanded toward Arsi and Karayu, and proclaimed himself king.

The later city of Adama lies here.