GONDAR, or GUENDAR, Abyssinia, former capital of Amhara, about 21 miles northeast of Lake Tsana, and on a spur of the Wogara Mountains, 7,500 feet above sea-level. The town is in a more or less ruined condition, having suffered severly in the civil wars of Abyssinia and being ruthlessly damaged by Emperor Theodore II in 1868. It was a loosely built town of districts divided by open spaces and at the beginning of the 16th century was a small village. It became the capital of the kingdom by choice of Seged I. It was the seat of many churches, castles and palaces and was at its height in 1736 when the last of the pal aces, that of Negus Yesu II was built. From that time until the British pacification of the Sudan in 1886-89 Gondar was repeatedly sacked and fired. The population dwindled from an estimated 50,000 in 1770 to about 7,000 in 1905. The ruins of the castles and palaces
of Gondar show traces of the Portuguese pop ulation at one time numerous there, the build ings resembling in a measure the mediaeval fortresses of Europe. The churches were built in the circular Abyssinian manner, but of the 44 which once existed in Gondar or its imme diate vicinity but one remained without serious injury in 1900. The population is chiefly Mo hammedan and there is a settlement of Falashas. With the pacification of the country the fortunes of the town have improved and with an increasing population there is now a trade between Gondar and the Blue Nile. The industries number those of gold and silver ornaments, cotton and cotton cloth, shoes, saddles and carvings in bone and ivory. Con sult Powell-Cotton, 'A Sporting Trip Through Abyssinia' (1902).