Nile Photo Gallery Lake Tana (Bahir Dar), Ethiopia

Majestic and mysterious Lake Tana, one of the fabled sources of the Nile, lies south west of the Simien Mountains.  Long hidden from western geographers and explorers, it was not until the expeditions of Bruce, Burton and Speke that the secret of the Nile was finally revealed.  It was then confirmed that the White Nile originates in East Africa’s Lake Victoria, while the Blue Nile pours out of Ethiopia’s Lake Tana. The two rivers merge into the Nile proper at Khartoum in Sudan.  In its 800 kilometer course from Ethiopia to the plains of the Sudan the Blue Nile begins its journey with a thundering 50-meter cascade over Tissisat Falls, 30 kilometers downstream from the point where it leaves Lake Tana.

The falls are approached on foot from the nearby village of Tissisat, meaning ‘water that smokes’. After crossing a castellated 17th century Portuguese bridge that spans a deep basaltic rift, a grassy rise must be climbed before the falls suddenly appear churning the smooth, unfaltering flow of the Nile into a boiling cataract and sending it foaming down into the gorge below.

Set at more than 1,800 meters above sea level, Lake Tana is 75 kilometers long and 60 kilometers wide.  Its 3,600 square kilometer surface is dotted with over 30 island, many of which are home to ancient monasteries and churches. One of the best is Uran Kidane Mehret in Zege peninsula. 

  Rivaling the attraction of the Blue Nile Falls are the thirty seven islands scattered about on the 3,000 square-kilometer surface of Ethiopia’s largest body of water Lake Tana, which gives birth to the Blue Nile. Some twenty of these shelter churches and monasteries of immense historical and cultural interest, decorated with beautiful paintings and housing innumerable treasures. The islands and peninsulas of Lake Tana are most conveniently approached by boat from Bahar Dar on the southern side of the lake. Access to the churches is for the most part closed to women. Women are however permitted to visit churches on the Zeghe peninsula, the nearby church of Ura Kidane Mehret. Located on the Zeghe peninsula  the church is an integral part of the local community. The church established in the fourteenth century and  it is famous for the decorative building with colorful frescoes depicting biblical scenes from biblical lore and the history of the Ethiopian orthodox Church.