We'll have to leave the wonderful folks of Gonder for just a bit to have a quick tour of the castle and it's several outbuildings. Or, as the self-appointed archeologists call it “the royal enclosure.”
This castle was built as the home of King Fasiladas (which unsurprisingly rhymes with Ozymandias–but more on that in a moment).
By good chance, Gonder was at the crossroads of several trade routes, so became a flourishing capital starting around 1636 and lasting a couple of hundred years.
Lonely Planet says this about the interior of the king's house: “In former times, the palace was sumptuously decorated. Gilded Venetian mirrors and chairs made up the furnishings; gold leaf, ivory and beautiful paintings adorned the walls. Visiting travelers described the palace as 'more beautiful than Solomon's house'.”And so let's take a look inside.
Seems like a few of them gold leaf paintings have a gone missin'. And that leads us into Shelly's poem Ozymandias. Or, as Yogi Berra once quipped “It's Deja Vu all over again.”
