Fasil Ghebbi
The royal enclosure with the castles of Fasilides and successive emperors. Golden hour on the stone is superb and the compound is walkable for a small unit. Heritage permission and fees apply.
Filming location · Amhara
Filming in Gondar
Gondar gives you architecture that surprises audiences, because it does not match what they expect Ethiopia to look like. Stone castles with towers and battlements, built by seventeenth-century emperors, sitting in a highland town. It is also the gateway to Simien, so most northern schedules pair the two.
Short answer
Gondar in the Amhara region was Ethiopia's imperial capital from the seventeenth century and holds Fasil Ghebbi, a UNESCO-listed royal enclosure of stone castles and palaces unlike anything else in sub-Saharan Africa. It is also the best place to film Timkat, the Ethiopian Orthodox celebration of Epiphany on 19 January, when thousands gather at the Fasilides Bath for a mass blessing in the water. Heritage authority permission is required for the enclosure, church consent for Debre Berhan Selassie, and Timkat positions must be agreed with both church and city authorities well in advance.
- Region
- Amhara
- Altitude
- approx. 2,133 m
- Nearest airport
- Gondar Airport, domestic flights from Addis Ababa
- Best time
- October to March; Timkat on 19 January
- From Addis Ababa
- 1 hour 15 minutes by air
What to film here
Debre Berhan Selassie
A seventeenth-century church whose ceiling is covered with rows of winged angel faces, one of the most reproduced images in Ethiopian art. Interior is dim and church consent is required.
Fasilides Bath and Timkat
A stone pool filled once a year for Timkat on 19 January, when crowds enter the water after the blessing. Extraordinary, extremely crowded, and needs positions agreed and secured in advance.
Kuskuam and the hillside
The ruined palace complex of Empress Mentewab above the town, quieter than Fasil Ghebbi and useful for wide landscape and establishing material.
The road to Simien
Roughly three hours to the park gate at Debark, making Gondar the natural base for a combined heritage and wildlife schedule.
From our shoots
Nearby and related
Other Ethiopian locations
Start a production
Filming in Gondar?
Send your dates and shot list. We will come back with the permit route, the access position, realistic travel times and an itemised cost — usually within a working day.