From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Debre Marqos (also called Mankorar) is a city and woreda in east-central Ethiopia. Located in the Misraq Gojjam Zone of the Amhara Region, it has a latitude and longitude of 10°20′N 37°43′E, and an elevation of 2446 meters. The city is called Debre Marqos after its principal church, constructed in the late 19th century and dedicated to St. Mark.

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Debre Marqos has an estimated total population of 85,597, of whom 43,229 were males and 42,368 were females. The woreda has an estimated area of 21.53 square kilometers, which gives Debre Marqos a density of 3,975.70 people per square kilometer.^[1] According to the 1994 national census this city had a population of 49,297.

Debre Marqos is served by an airport (ICAO code HADM, IATA DBM) with an unpaved runway.

Debre Marqos was the capital of Tekle Haymanot, Negus of Gojjam during his reign and as a result, Pankhurst notes, the population of Debre Marqos "fluctuated greatly with the presence of absence of the army" of the Negus. He states that when the Negus resided in the town, it had between 20,000 and 40,000 inhabitants; in his absence, between 5,000 and 6,000.^[2]

A major Italian fortification was located in the city during the existence of Italian East Africa, and captured by the British Gideon Force and Ethiopian Arbenyotch (or Resistance Fighters) 3 April 1941. Until the reorganization of the provinces that followed the adoption of the 1995 constitution, this city served as the capital of the province of Gojjam.

1. ^ CSA 2005 National Statistics, Table B.4
2. ^ Richard P.K. Pankhurst, An Economic History of Ethiopia, 1800-1935 (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University Press, 1968), p. 694.