Sire, Arsi

Sire (also transliterated "Sirie") is a town in south-western Ethiopia. Located in the Arsi Zone of the Oromia Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of 08°17′N 39°27′E / 8.283°N 39.450°E / 8.283; 39.450Coordinates: 08°17′N 39°27′E / 8.283°N 39.450°E / 8.283; 39.450 with an altitude of 1793 meters above sea level. It is administrative center of Sire woreda.

C.W. Gwynn passed through Sire in late October 1908 en route to his assignment to delineate the border between Kenya and Ethiopia. He describes the settlement's location at the time as "halfway up the scarp" on the southern side of the Awash River, and Sire itself as "a small Abyssinian village and customs post". He was struck by its "curious little church consisting of a stone-built cube, surmounted by a sharp steeple-like roof, also of stone", which he speculated was originally a Muslim shrine "similar to that at Sheikh Hussein and others in the Arussi country."^[1]

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Sire has an estimated total population of 10,977 of whom 5,404 are men and 5,573 women.^[2] The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 6,141 of whom 2,931 were men and 3,210 women.

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