Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Maqora

Maqora

Maqora (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log | edits since nomination)

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I don't think that this place, whatever it is - a khat farm according to the second source, a military camp according to the third source - is covered by WP:GEOLAND: the previously-unsourced sentence that formed the article said "Maqaora is a town located 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) away from the city of Harar in eastern Ethiopia" and none of the sources support that. I am a bit dubious about the different spellings equating to the same place, but as I don't know anything about Amharic and how it is romanised, I can't suggest an alternative. For what it's worth, OpenStreetmap has it as Meqora'e Amharic: መቆራእ. No sources with significant coverage to support WP:GNG but I have not been able to search sources in Amharic. Cheers, SunloungerFrog (talk) 05:31, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

• Note: this discussion has been included in the list of Ethiopia-related AfD discussions. SunloungerFrog (talk) 05:31, 5 August 2026 (UTC)
• Courtesy ping @Chaotic Enby: who de-prodded to add the current sources. SunloungerFrog (talk) 05:33, 5 August 2026 (UTC)
• Thanks for bringing this to AfD. I only removed the WP:PROD as it was focused on the existence of the place, but agreed that the sourcing (only consisting of passing mentions) wasn't sufficient for GNG (courtesy link).
  The main language in that region is Oromo, with Harari having been spoken historically. The ejective /k'/ is often romanized ⟨q⟩ in Oromo, which would explain the varying spellings. Really, my main hope here is that the shorthand in Local history of Ethiopia might refer to sources discussing it more in detail, but the work is only available piecemeal and I haven't been able to find a key yet. Chaotic Enby (in solidarity · talk · contribs) 06:02, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

  Nevermind, the codes can be found here. JDJ35 refers to its position in the British War Office maps, Gz to the Gazetteer of Ethiopia, and q only notes the existence of a spelling variant. Chaotic Enby (in solidarity · talk · contribs) 06:05, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

  The Gazetteer itself has an entry for Mek'ora here, as well as "Mek'ora Bota" (literally "Mek'ora Locality"), respectively labeled as PPL (populated place) and LCTY (locality), cf. the key. So, Mek'ora did exist as some kind of populated place, at least historically. Annoyingly, this doesn't tell us anything about whether there was once a recognition for such a place (or for places below the kebele level in general), and we'd need someone more familiar with Ethiopian history to tell. Chaotic Enby (in solidarity · talk · contribs) 06:21, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

  (edit conflict) I think the key is here. It seems that JDJ35 refers to a 10km x 10km square on a British War Office map in which the place is located, and [Gz q] means that the other information is taken from the US Defense Mapping Agency's Gazetteer of Ethiopia, with spellings enriched with the k/q equivalence that you note above. Cheers, SunloungerFrog (talk) 06:23, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

  Just to note that my doubt about the spelling was also (and probably more) about Ma- vs. Me- than k vs. q. I don't think any of the current sourcing makes that equivalence. Cheers, SunloungerFrog (talk) 06:36, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

• Info - Note on soft closure: While this discussion appears to have no quorum, it is NOT eligible for soft deletion because it has been previously PROD'd (via summary).

--Cewbot (talk) 00:02, 13 August 2026 (UTC)

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks,  — Chris Woodrich (talk) 02:00, 13 August 2026 (UTC)

• Delete - a sentence here and a passing reference there, about a Khat farm, does not constitute significant coverage. Bearian (talk) 19:19, 16 August 2026 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.