Tigray Province
Tigray (, ) is a historical region and province of Ethiopia. It encompasses most of the territories of Tigrinya-speakers (and a few minority groups closely linked with them) in Ethiopia; Tigray is separated from the northern Tigrinya territories by the River Mereb, now serving as the state border to Eritrea.
Tigray Province
Hawzen was an important province seemingly already in Aksumite times (with important early rock-hewn churches); according to the , in the 13th century Hawzen encompassed wide areas from today's Hawzen to the Afar salt plains in the east. Consequently, over the centuries the realm of Tigray regularly extended over all these territories. Tembien was included into Tigray already in the 17th century, and at times also well before. An ancient permanent boundary of Tigray proper to the south is the Tekeze, in ancient sources equalled with the Nile River. Therefore, Tigray proper together with its dependencies was occasionally also called ("beyond the Tekezze"). Over a long period, the capital of Tigray proper was Hawzen in the sub-province Haramat. Already in the 17th century this town served as a seat of governors. In the 19th century it again served as the capital, e.g. of Wube Haile Mariam and "negus" Negusse. Adwa assumed the role of a capital in the 18th century under Amde Haymanot, and again later (starting from the 1880s in competition with the new capital Mekelle).