Addis Ababa is the country's commercial, manufacturing, and cultural center. It is the focus of a highway network, the site of an international airport, and the terminus of a railroad to the Gulf of Aden port of Djibouti. In the city there are printing industries, and manufactures include footwear, clothing, asbestos and metal products, processed foods, cement, and plywood. Flourishing handicraft industries produce leather, metal, and textile goods, which are traded along with the regional agricultural produce, such as coffee, tobacco, and dairy items, in the vast open-air market known as the Merkato, on the W side of the city. Addis Ababa, the Capital of modern Ethiopia, and gateway for most tourists, is the political and commercial heart of the Country. Now a city of 4 million people, it was founded by Emperor Menelik in 1887.

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM

This famous museum, close to the University of Addis Ababa Graduate School, houses numerous antiquarian relics and archaeological artifacts showing the history of Ethiopia from prehistoric times to the modern day. Its most famous exhibit is the 3.2 million year old skeleton of Lucy (Australopiticus Afarensis). It is discovered in 1974 by an American archaeologist. The Museum also known by archeological findings particularly at Axum and its surrounding, the famous throne of Emperor Hailesellassie I, last king of the solomonic dynasty and different antique deals with Ethiopian life, history and arts.