Shire

Shire lies in the northern Ethiopian highlands, west of Axum, on the plateau of western Tigray. Its fields of barley and teff sit among escarpments and valleys, and the land has been farmed for a very long time. The region's human history reaches back to the age of the Aksumite kingdom and beyond, when the rulers of Axum drew on the highlands for food and labour.

An early mention of the place survives in a charter of Emperor Dawit I, who ruled around the turn of the fifteenth century. The charter shows the Solomonic kings already administering the western highlands through grants and privileges to local churches and lords. The name Shire also covers the wider country of western Tigray, which lay on the routes between the highlands and the western lowlands.