BAHIR DAR

Bahir Dar is a city in north western Ethiopia and the capital of the Amhara Administrative Region (kilil). The city is situated on the southern shore of Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile (or Abay), in what was previously the Gojjam province. As of 1994, its population was 96,140. It lies at 1700m above sea level.

The city is located approximately 310 km north-northwest of Addis Ababa. Ethiopian Airlines operates scheduled flights between the two cities. The Blue Nile Falls (Tis Abay) are located about 30 km to the south.

HISTORY

Bahir Dar grew around a Jesuit settlement, founded in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, from which time the Pedro Páez building dates. One of Emperor Haile Selassie's palaces is located near the city, and the Emperor considered moving the national capital to the town.

LAKE TANA

Lake Tana (also spelled T'ana; older spellings include "Tsana" and "Dambea") is the source of the Blue Nile and is the largest lake in Ethiopia. It is approximately 84 kilometers long and 66 kilometers wide, and is located in the country's north-west highlands at 12°0′N 37°15′E. The lake's greatest depth is 15 meters, at an elevation of 1840 meters. The lake is fed by the Reb River and Gumara River and its surface area ranges from 3,000 to 3,500 km² depending on season and rainfall. The Lake level has been regulated since the construction of the control weir where the lake discharges into the Blue Nile. This regulates the flow to the Tis Abay falls and hydropower station.

The lake has a number of islands, whose numbers vary depending on the level of the lake; it has fallen about 6 feet in the last 400 years. According to Manoel de Almeida (who was a Portuguese missionary in the early 16th century), there were 21 islands, seven to eight of which had monasteries on them "formerly large, but now much diminished." When James Bruce visted the area in the later 18th century, he noted that the locals counted 45 inhabited islands, but stated he believed that "the number may be about eleven." A more modern geographer named 37 islands, of which he believed 19 have or had monasteries or churches on them.1

Remains of ancient Ethiopian emperors and treasures of the church are kept in the isolated island monasteries. On the island of Tana Cherqos is a rock shown to Paul B. Henze, on which he was told the Virgin Mary had rested on her journey back from Egypt; he was also told that Frumentius, who introduced Christianity to Ethiopia, is "allegedly buried on Tana Cherqos."2 The body of Yekuno Amlak is interred in the monastery of St. Stephen on the Daga Island; other Emperors whose tombs are on Daga include Dawit I, Zara Yaqob, Za Dengel and Fasilidos. Other important islands in Lake Tana include Dek Island and Meshralia.

The monasteries are believed to rest on earlier religious sites and include the fourteenth century Debre Maryam, Dega Estefanos, the eighteenth century Narga Selassie, Tana Cherkos (said to have housed the Ark of the Covenant), and Ura Kidane Mecet, known for its regalia. A ferry service links Bahir Dar with Gorgora via Dek Island and various lakeshore villages.

source: wikipedia.org.