Kon­so Cul­tur­al Land­scape is an arid prop­er­ty of stone walled ter­races and for­ti­fied set­tle­ments in the Kon­so high­lands of Ethiopia. It con­sti­tutes a spec­tac­u­lar exam­ple of a liv­ing cul­tur­al tra­di­tion stretch­ing back 21 gen­er­a­tions (more than 400 years) adapt­ed to its dry hos­tile envi­ron­ment. The land­scape demon­strates the shared val­ues, social cohe­sion and engi­neer­ing knowl­edge of its com­mu­ni­ties. The site also fea­tures anthro­po­mor­phic wood­en stat­ues — grouped to rep­re­sent respect­ed mem­bers of their com­mu­ni­ties and par­tic­u­lar­ly hero­ic events — which are an excep­tion­al liv­ing tes­ti­mo­ny to funer­ary tra­di­tions that are on the verge of dis­ap­pear­ing. Stone ste­les in the towns express a com­plex sys­tem of mark­ing the pass­ing of gen­er­a­tions of lead­ers.