Dire Dawa is one of two chartered cities in Ethiopia (the other being the capital, Addis Ababa), and also the second city in population (more then 340,000 inhabitants). It lies in the eastern part of the country, on the Dechatu Wadi (seasonal river), at the foot of a ring of cliffs that has been described as "somewhat like a cluster of tea-leaves in the bottom of a slop-basin." As in the rest of Ethiopia, the population of this city is highly diverse, the main ethnic groups in the region being the Oromo (45%), Somali (42%), Amhara (9%), Gurage (3%), and Harari (1%). The religion with the most believers in Dire Dawa is Muslim with 70.8%, 25.71% are Ethiopian Orthodox, 2.81% Protestant, and 0.43% Catholic. The postcard depicts this diversity.
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