Angot (Amharic language: አንጎት, translated as "Neck," possibly referring to the province geography) was a historical region in northern Ethiopia. It was bordered on the west by Bugna and the Afar lowlands to the east and southeast, Ambassel to the southwest and Tigray Province to the north. Portuguese explorer Francisco Álvares wrote that the boundary between Angot and Tigray was the Sabalete River located north-east of Lake Ashenge.
Axumite history
Under the reign of
Degna Djan, during the 10th century, the empire kept expanding south, and sent troops into the modern-day region of
Ennarea,
[Werner J. Lange, ”History of the Southern Gonga (southwestern Ethiopia)“, Steiner, 1982, p. 18] while at the same time undertaking missionary activity into Angot. Emperor Dil Na'od is said to have relocated the capital to Ku'bar on the shore of
Lake Hayq, south of Angot, and built the Istifanos Monastery.
Aksum by that time was no longer the center of the Christian kingdom, and was instead a frontier town, threatened from the west and south by the rising
Beta Israel and from the north by invading Beja tribes. Angot was a much more defensible position, a decision that proved wise when Beta Israel captured Aksum during Queen
Gudit's invasion. The capital, called Ku'bar or Jarmi,
was probably located in southern
Tigray Region or Angot, however the exact location of this city is currently unknown.
[Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 36.]
Later history
Angot is mentioned as being north of
Bete Amhara in the medieval period.
[Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 53.] Angot was on the front line between Abyssinia and the Afar lowlands, and after multiple wars, was occupied by the
Oromo people tribes of Raya, Wollo and Yejju. In more recent times, it became part of
Wollo Province and from 1994 it got split between
Amhara Region and
Tigray Region regions. The northern parts of Angot (
Raya Azebo) become part of Tigray, and the rest became part of the Amhara Region under the North Wollo Zone.
