What it is
A highland city at around 2,200m. Fasil Ghebbi is a walled enclosure holding the castles and palaces of a line of emperors from the 1630s onward: stone, crenellated, and unlike anything else in the region.
Why go
The castle compound takes a morning. Debre Berhan Selassie church, on a hill above town, has a ceiling painted with rows of winged angel faces and is worth the short drive by itself. Fasilides' Bath, a stone pool inside a walled garden of fig roots, is filled once a year.
When to go
October to March. Timkat, on 19 January, is when the Bath is filled and thousands of people are blessed in the water at dawn — the best single day to be in Gondar, and the hardest day of the year to find a room. Most travellers use Gondar for a night either side of the Simien Mountains, which are about three hours away by road.
Most people stay 1-2 nights.