GONDAR, properly Guendar, a town of Abyssinia, formerly the capital of the Amharic kingdom, is situated on a basaltic ridge in the country of Dembea, about 21 miles N.E. of Lake Tsana or Tana, a splendid view of which is obtained from the castle. According to Riippell, its latitude is 12° 35' N. and its longitude 37° 31' 57" E., aud it lies 7460 feet above the level of the sea. Two streams, the Angreb on the east side and the Gaha or Kaha on the west, flow down from the ridge, and meeting below the town pass onwards to the lake. In the Gaha the Christian inhabitants of Gondar are accustomed to bathe in vast disorderly crowds on the feast of St John the Baptist (10th September), and again in a more decent manner on the auniversary of the Saviour’s birth. The town is divided into several districts separated from each other by w ood and field,-—one being the Abun-Bed or bishop’s quarter, another the Etchege-Bed or quarter of the prior or chief of the monks, while a third takes its name from the Debra Birhan or Church of the Light, and a fourth from the Gemp or castle. This was at one time a splendid pile, designed on the plan of a mediaeval stronghold; and the solidity of its masonry, the beauty of its ornamentations, and the general effect of its arrangement stand in striking contrast to the mean and monotonous houses of the town, which are all erected after the cylindro-conical type. It was built in the 16th century for King Socinius by the Portuguese adventurers, who employed Indian workmen in its erection. At some distance there is another palace built at a later date for Ras Michael, which affords no bad imitation of the Portuguese style. Upwards of forty churches, all in the circular Abyssinian style, are said to exist in the town and immediate vicinity; of ...