| Summary: | Describing space in Mesḥāla Māryām (Manz, Ethiopia) entails relating remains on the ground and features of the landscape to an old royal camp, which was said to have been set up there in the mid-15th century. This legendary geography has settled out of several historical layers of memory. An analysis of genealogies collected in the field helps us understand how space and memory were brought together to create this legendary royal camp. These genealogies present two important periods in local history: first of all, the settlement of a Christian king in the area, who founded the Mesḥāla Māryām church in the mid-15th century, and secondly the reconquest of the area in the late 17th century by Gērā after a neighboring sultanate’s imam had waged a jihad with, as consequence, human migrations that reshaped the religious and political landscape for more than a century.
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