Maychew

Maychew (Tigrinya: "salt water"), sometimes spelled Maichew, is a town and woreda in southern Tigrai on Ethiopian Highway 2, about 665 km north of Addis Ababa. It is best known as the site of the decisive Battle of Maychew, fought on 31 March 1936 during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War: Emperor Haile Selassie personally led a roughly 30,000-strong Ethiopian force in a counteroffensive against fortified Italian positions under Marshal Pietro Badoglio, but the assault was repelled with heavy losses, aided by Italian use of mustard gas dispersed by aircraft in the following days. The defeat broke Ethiopia's capacity for coordinated conventional resistance in the north and opened the way for the Italian "March of the Iron Will" on Addis Ababa less than a month later. Today Maychew functions as an agricultural market town for the surrounding highlands.

By bus from Mekelle (120 km south-east) or from Alamata (50 km east).

• Battle of Maychew site: The surrounding highlands where the decisive 1936 battle of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War was fought.

• Alamata — 50 km west.
• Mekelle — 120 km north-west.
• Korem — 40 km north.