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Addis Ababa was founded by Emperor Menelik II towards the end of the 1880s, his eventual permanent capital city, however, the first such capital after the decline of Gondar in the latter half of the 19th century, he had established temporary capitals at six different locations, the last of which was Intoto. Addis Ababa is located at the hill foot of Intoto.

Emperor Menelik II (1889 - 1913)

Empress Zewditu

Mount Entoto

Perhaps one of the most plausible explanations for Menelik's constant shift from one impermanent town to another seems to be that recorded by Monsieur Mondon Vidaye, a Frenchman, who is said to have asked Menelik why he was moving from one town to another. Menelik's response was: "For the same reason that my predecessors kept on moving. It is because we have exhausted the firewood of the area, and we have to move on to an area where there is an abundant supply of firewood" (Source: ETTE, Discovering Ethiopia).

At the suggestion of the said Frenchman for an alternative to bring an end to the impermanence of Ethiopian cities, the planting of fast-growing trees, Menelik was only too happy to stay where he was if that could be done: hence the introduction from far-off Australia of the now ubiquitous eucalyptus tree, a cogent explanation for why Menelik's, and consequently the country's capital took root in Addis Ababa.

However, Taytu's idea, as popular history has it, to move Menelik's capital from the chilly tops of the 3000-meter high Intoto Hills to its present location, just beneath the foot of Intoto, then known as Finfine (in the Oromo language), so called because of the hot springs (locally known as fil woha, lit. meaning 'boiling water), which Taytu found salubrious and the perfect spot for curing Menelik of his supposed chronic arthritis.