Bati, Ethiopia Bati, Ethiopia Bati is a town in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Oromia Zone of the Amhara Region (or "killoch"), east of Dessie this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1502 metres above sea level. It is the largest town in Bati woreda. Bati is known for its market, located between the Ethiopian highlands and the Great Rift Valley. According to Philip Briggs, this market "forms an important cultural crossroads for the Amhara, Oromo and semi-nomadic, desert-dwelling Afar people. Bati has hosted Ethiopia's largest cattle and camel market, attracting up to 20,000 people every Monday."
Bati, Ethiopia Before the Italian invasion, most of a 100-kilometer road between Bati and Dessie had been completed. Telephone service reached Bati by 1956: the town had two telephones, for the police and for the residence of the Crown Prince. The town also had postal service well before that time. The earliest mention of Bati is in the 1930s, but Paul B. Henze believed that the market "must antedate the town by at least 200 or 300 years." He adds, "I have been unable to find references of very early travellers to Bati, which may have had a different name in earlier