When you think of old civilisations, may spring to mind, complete with mummies, and part and part human gods. It emerged around 5,000 years ago, reaching its zenith in the 16th century BC. In fact, the culture was around for so long that it has been split into three time periods by Egyptologists: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age.

Despite the region's impressive heritage and history, Egypt was not an independent nation until 1922 under the reign of King Fuad I. Although its former coloniser Britain retained influence until the 1950s. Ethiopia, meanwhile, is considered to be the oldest independent country in Africa, and one of the most ancient on the planet. Nowadays, it is the second-largest state in terms of population. It has never been colonised, with the exception of a five-year-long occupation by Italy.

Troops were repelled at the Battle of Adwa during the First Italo-Ethiopian War, with the Africans ousting the Europeans once again in 1935-36 when Ethiopia, then known as Abyssinia, was invaded by Benito Mussolini during the prelude to WW2.

This was one of the international crises that the prelude to the United Nations, the League of Nations, failed to react adequately to.

The first kingdom there is documentary evidence for in Africa is Aksum, which is thought to have emerged in the second century.

In ancient times, Ethiopia was centred around Aksum and had its imperial capital in the northern part of the country, around 100 miles away from the Red Sea.

The country was a founding member of the UN and nowadays consists of land consolidated during the 19th and 20th centuries as imperial European powers carved up Africa.

Consequently, the region served as a symbol of African independence.