Soqota
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Soqota ሰቆጣ Sokota, Sakota, &c. |
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 Soqota
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| Coordinates: 12°38′N 39°02′E / 12.633°N 39.033°ECoordinates: 12°38′N 39°02′E / 12.633°N 39.033°E | |
| Country | Ethiopia |
| Region | Amhara |
| Zone | Wag Hemra Zone |
| Population (2007) | |
| • Total | 22,346 |
| Time zone | EAT (UTC+3) |
Soqota (Amharic: ሰቆጣ?), formerly spelled Sokota and also known as Sakota,Sekota, &c., is a town and separate woreda in northern Ethiopia. The name is likely from the Agaw word sekut, "fortified village." Located in the Wag Hemra Zone of the Amhara Region, Soqota has a latitude and longitude of 12°38′N 39°02′E / 12.633°N 39.033°E and an elevation of 2266 meters above sea level. It is surrounded by woreda of Soqota.
About 6 kilometers from Soqota is the church Wukro Meskal Kristos, where the mummified corpses of several Wagshums lie.
Philip Briggs speculates that this town may be identified with the mysterious Ku'bar, said by al-Ya'qubi and al-Masudi to have succeeded Axum as the capital of Ethiopia.
Soqota is the historic seat of the Wagshum, the former ruler of Lasta, who claimed to trace an unbroken succession back to the last king of the Zagwe dynasty. However, verification for this tradition is slight. This town is not mentioned in the surviving records until 1746, when the soldiers of Emperor Iyasu II burned it down. The traveller Augustus B. Wylde wrote in the 1890s that the palace of the Wagshums in this town had been built around 1650. It was a three-storey structure which could not be dated with any precision, but he believed the masons and craftsmen were some of those who had worked at Gondar.
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