Dessie  Dessie (; also spelled Dese or Dessye) is a city and a zone in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Amhara Region, it sits at a latitude and longitude of , with an elevation between 2,470 and 2,550 metres above sea level. Dessie is 400km to the north of the capital Addis Ababa. It has a population of more than 200,000 people in over 30 districts. Prior to Dessie's foundation, the major settlement in this area was Wasal, first mentioned in an early 16th-century Italian itinerary. Emperor Yohannes IV was camping in the highlands to the west of the Chefa Valley in 1882 on an expedition to forcefully convert the Muslim Wollo who lived in the region to Christianity. As he was looking for a place to centralize his power in the newly conquered region of Wollo, he stayed overnight in a pre-existing town that is now contained within Dessie. While there, he spotted a comet. He was so impressed by the sight of it that he interpreted it to be a sign from heaven to found his capital city there. Thus, he named it Dessie (Amharic "My Joy"), as a reference to the elation that the comet had made him feel. Dessie's location led to the telegraph line the Italians constructed between 1902 and 1904 from Asmara south to Addis Ababa passing through the city, and giving it a local telegraph office. Also in 1904, the Italian Giuseppe Bonaiuti took part in constructing a fair-weather road connecting the city to Addis Ababa. Dessie increased in importance when Ras Mikael Ali, son-in-law to Emperor Menelik II, made it his base. The city was where his son, would-be emperor Iyasus V, crowned Mikael negus around 1915. During his residence in Dessie, the Negus built a palace and the church Enda Medhane Alem, said to be placed on the site of a church destroyed by Imam Ahmed Gragn. The church is decorated with paintings which include portraits of Ras Mikael and his son. After the defeat of his father Negus Mikael, Lij Iyasu took refuge in Dessie beginning on 8 November 1916 while unsuccessfully seeking support from Ras Wolde Giyorgis and other major nobles of northern Ethiopia. However, Ras Wolde Giyorgis used these overtures to extract concessions from the central government, then marched on Dessie which Lij Iyasu fled 10 December.