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{{short description|
[[File:Monolithe1.JPG|thumb|Mount Wehni to the right of a [[Monolith]]]]▼
'''Wehni''' ([[Amharic]]: ወህኒ) is the name of one of the mountains of [[Ethiopia]] where most of the male [[heir]]s to the [[Emperor of Ethiopia]] were interned, usually for life. It was the last of the three such mountains, or ''[[amba (geology)|amba]]'', said to have been used for that purpose, the other two being [[Debre Damo]] and [[Amba Geshen]].
From some undetermined time in history, it was the custom that when the Emperor assumed the throne, his brothers and other male relatives would be taken to a royal prison, where they would live until either they were called forth to become the new emperor or died. Mount Wehni was first used as a prison by [[Fasilides of Ethiopia|Fasilides]], when he exiled his son Dawit there for leading a revolt.
Although [[James Bruce]] first mentions the existence of the royal prison at Wehni, [[Thomas Pakenham (historian)|Thomas Pakenham]] was the first European to visit the site, in 1955. He notes that when he started to search for this half-forgotten complex, there were three possible locations for the prison in the province of [[Begemder]], now part of the [[Amhara Region]] of Ethiopia: the Ethiopian expert [[Steven Wright (scholar)|Steven Wright]] believed it lay three days' journey to the west of [[Gondar]]; a Colonel Shifferaw, who was familiar with the area, knew of two locations to the east of Gondar.<ref>Thomas Pakenham, ''The Mountains of Rasselas'' (New York: Reynal & Co., 1959), p. 27.</ref> Pakenham's explorations determined that it lay in the mountains to the northeast of [[Emfraz]], and he recorded his first clear view of it:
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Travel writer [[Barbara Toy]] was the first Westerner to set foot on the top of Wehni, which she accessed in 1959 by helicopter.<ref name=AWW>{{cite news|title=A woman's-eye view of Timbuktu ...|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47492885|first=Carol|last=Henty|date=13 February 1963|accessdate=16 January 2014|work=The Australian Women's Weekly}}</ref><ref name=Macm>{{cite news|title=Barbara Toy (author profile)|url=http://us.macmillan.com/author/barbaratoy|accessdate=16 January 2014|work=Macmillan.com}}</ref> She camped overnight on the mountain, and wrote about her time in Ethiopia in her 1961 book ''In Search of Sheba: Across the Sahara to Ethiopia'', published by [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]].<ref>''In Search of Sheba: Across the Sahara to Ethiopia'', 1961, pages 220-235; fifteen photographs on pages 228-229. Toy brought back a winejug from the summit which she later presented to the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at University College, Addis Ababa.</ref>
Mount Wehni was climbed in 2002 by members of the HotRock round the world [[rock climbing|climbing]] expedition. It was chronicled in the book ''The Reluctant Traveller'' by Bill Lumley, who joined HotRock for the Ethiopian leg of the journey.
▲Mount Wehni was climbed in 2002 by members of the HotRock round the world climbing expedition. It was chronicled in the book ''The Reluctant Traveller'' by Bill Lumley, who joined HotRock for the Ethiopian leg of the journey. The expedition incorrectly claimed that its members were the first known people to be on the summit of the mountain since its use as a prison some 300 years earlier, despite the visit 43 years earlier.{{citation needed}}
This royal prison at the top of Wehni left its influence on [[English literature]]
== References ==
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[[Category:Amhara Region]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Mountains of Ethiopia]]
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