Jimma is the largest city in southwestern Ethiopia, the historical capital of the Kingdom of Jimma, and the city most closely associated with the origin of coffee. This is not a tourist slogan: the forests around Jimma lie in the Kaffa highlands from which the word "coffee" is thought to derive, and wild Coffea arabica trees still grow here under forest canopy much as they did before anyone thought to cultivate them. The Coffee Pot Monument at the city's heart makes the claim explicit, but Jimma earns it.
The city sits at around 1,780 metres, high enough to keep temperatures comfortable year-round. It has the feeling of a highland market town that has grown into a city without losing its essential character: active, commercially minded, and proud of where it is from. The Thursday market draws farmers and traders from across the surrounding hills and is one of the best places in western Ethiopia to buy coffee, spices, and traditional crafts. Handwoven baskets are a local speciality.
The main historical sight is the Palace of Abba Jifar, a 19th-century royal compound on a hill north of town. Abba Jifar II ruled the Kingdom of Jimma for 54 years and built it into one of the most prosperous states in the Gibe region, its wealth resting on the coffee trade his kingdom controlled. The adjacent Jimma Museum holds royal artefacts and objects from the Oromo court. Lake Boye, a few kilometres south of town, is good for birdwatching. Jimma University, consistently ranked among Ethiopia's leading universities, gives the city a younger, more cosmopolitan energy than its size and location might otherwise produce.
Jimma sits on the overland route between Addis Ababa and the far southwest of Ethiopia — the road continues toward Mizan Teferi and eventually the Omo Valley. The Kaffa highlands and their wild coffee forests, accessible from Jimma as a day trip or overnight, are among the more unusual landscapes in the country.