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Embatkala

Embatkalla
As of January 1, 2000, railway service was officially returned to Embatkalla.  During my stay, Embatkala still was host to a number of plantations although many were broken up under British rule.  Also, it was host to the Ethiopian Naval Training Center.  Today, the former center is the Center of Excellence for Business Development.  Because of the pleasant climate, there has been some push to make a resort in the area.


 


Photo courtesy of Charles Moulton©1970

Chuck also provided more closely cropped view of Embatkala shown above.


Photo courtesy of Tom Johnson©1961
Tom Johnson took the picture of the station from a slightly different angle from Chuck's view.
A closer cropped version of Tom's picture is shown above.

Photo courtesy of Tom Johnson©1961
The above picture was originally identified as Mai Atal as it was the only other city close to the highway which had not been otherwise identified.  James L. Woodward's prompting lead me to study picture more carefully.  A review of the profile of the line lead me to conclude that these were maintainance of way buildings and the line was both in the forground and background.  Looking at Tom's and Chuck's pictures, showed me that there is a loop within the Embatkalla area.  I will verify that when I get some more detailed mapping information.

Photo courtesy of Renato Gaudio
Renato was able to provide a picture of Embatkala taken about 1910.   The train station must have been moved from that time as I cannot match the scenes from the 1960s to this picture. The road is shown above the station.  I believe this is one of the buildings in the forground in Tom Johnson's last picture above.  I believe the scene above and the one below are of the same place.

GRAF©1975
The picture was captioned (in Italian) "A train and its crew at the station for Embatkalla"  This shows three tracks.  There are some cars to the right of the locomotive.  It also shows it being on a fairly straight streatch of track.

Photo courtesy of Charles Moulton©1970
Chuck also provided a view of the village of Embatkala.

Ralph R. Reinhold©1962
I am certain the the above is part of the (then) Ethiopian Naval Training Center.  It is now the Eritrean Management Institute.  Work is being done there in cooperation with Boston University.  Bruce Packhurst went there recently to set up their language laboratory and has some pictures at the link.

Ralph R. Reinhold©1962
The above pictures were taken from a Littorina in 1961.  They represent the village just beyond the station.

The next two pictures represent the (then) Ethiopian Training Center at Embatkalla.  This is now the Eritrean Management Institute.

Ralph R. Reinhold©1962


Ralph R. Reinhold©1962


Photo courtesy of Tommy Tolbert©
Toward the bottom of Tommy's picture there is a wavy line.  This is the path the train took when I took the above pictures.

Jerry Pry's collection has a picture of the village of Embatkalla.

Picture courtesy of Jerry Pry

Pactrick Horton©1998
Patrick Horton's picture has been identified elsewhere as being at Embatkala.
 

Dave Engstrom recently visited Eritrea.  Originally, I believed the picture below may have been the same bridge. However, the height difference between the bridge and the road and the differences in the two end arches have lead me to believe it is a different viaduct.

Photo courtesy of Dave Engstrom©1998
This must be a bridge between Embatkalla and Nefasit.  The only other five arch bridge before the flats are either no where near the main highway or on the escarpment.




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