Kundudo

Kundudo
Highest point
Elevation	2,965 m (9,728 ft)
Coordinates	9°26′N 42°20′E / 9.433°N 42.333°E / 9.433; 42.333Coordinates: 9°26′N 42°20′E / 9.433°N 42.333°E / 9.433; 42.333
Geography
Kundudo Location in Ethiopia
Location	Misraq (Eastern) Hararghe Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Kundudo or Kondudo (rarely spelt as Qundudo) is a flat top mountain (or amba) in the Misraq (Eastern) Hararghe Zone of the Oromia region of Ethiopia. Part of the 13-kilometre (8 mi) range that bears its name, its summit lies east of the walled city of Harar, with a height of nearly 3,000 metres (9,800 ft).

In the same range, the Goba tarara (a term for mountain) holds a vast cave known since the nineteen hundreds, whilst at the southern end the Stinico tarara holds ancient engravings, unknown until 2008, in two recently studied small open caves. The summit is a flat grassland 13 hectares (32 acres) in area, and is the habitat of the only remaining feral horse population of East Africa, one of only two on the continent.

Below Kondudo lie the localities of Fugnan Bira (also named Gursum), Day Feres, Fugnan Hujuba, Ejersa Goro, Bedada, Goba, Sakhare and Yaya Guda. Nearby is also a shrine and a singular design mosque named by the locals after Sheikh Adem Goba.

This mountain was mentioned by the British explorer Richard F. Burton, whose party traveled along its Southern base January 1854, on their way to Harar.

On February 13–14, 2009, a group of six Italian and French speleologists explored a newly found cave of international interest. The cave is classified amongst the best five on the continent and is the only one in Ethiopia to contain a full variety of active speleothem kinds, or significant cave rock formations. The Kundudo limestone layers have been indicated by Prof. Viganó to contain more similar caves and vast fossil fields. As a consequence of these discoveries the whole area is being proposed for the constitution of an Oromia State Park.

The feral horse herd is less than 10 strong and is threatened by extinction. Four local peasants in Bedada and Goba have been trying to tame them and have sold the docile colts; livestock is now grazing the top of the amba. The ruins of an ancient undated mosque on the amba has been transformed into a cattle pen.