Nile Photo Gallery Nilo Azul: Tissisat Falls, Ethiopia

The Falls are approached on foot from the nearby village which gives them their name - Tissisat means 'smoke of fire'. After crossing over a castellated 17th century Portuguese bridge that spans a deep basaltic rift, a grassy rise is climbed and then the Falls suddenly appear - breaking the smooth unfaltering flow of the Nile into a boiling cataract and sending it foaming down the gorge below.

A constant spray mist cloaks the surrounding cliffs, creating iridescent rainbows. High above raptors circle on the thermals. In the gorge below metallic blue kingfishers, carmine bee eaters, song birds and swifts dart through the fine droplets of spray before returning to their cliff-ledge perch.

Set at more that 1,800 meters above sea level, watershed for the Simien mountains, Tana is the reservoir from which the Blue Nile draws its strength. The lake is 75 kilometers long and 60 kilometers wide, its 3,600 square kilometer surface dotted with more than 30 islands - many of which are the sites of monasteries and churches.