Lake Tana & Blue Nile Falls
Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia, situated north of the beautiful town of Bahir Dar is the source from where the famous Blue Nile River starts its long journey to Khartoum and to the Mediterranean via Egypt beautiful paintings.
Around the shore and on the islands of Lake Tana, many monasteries have been flourished, with their own theological schools, which still exist, housing immense historical and cultural treasures adorned with beautiful paintings. Along the lakeshore bird life, both local and migratory visitors, make the site an ideal place for birdwatchers.
The Blue Nile River flows out of the lake with tremendous force and volume over the basalt shoulder of a giant cataract and onwards from there, ever downwards through dark and angry defiles towards the deserts of the Sudan, on its way to enrich Egypt’s fertile delta.
The Blue Nile River flows out of the lake. The power of the Blue Nile may best be appreciated just thirty kilometers downstream from the point where the river first leaves Lake Tana.
There, a thunder of sound fills the air and the green fields, and low hills on either bank tremble to the Blue Nile Falls. It is one of the most dramatic spectacles on either the White or Blue Niles, a vision of natural strength and grandeur.
From Bahir Dar you have to explore some of the ancient monasteries that have been built around Lake Tana or on the many islands in the lake. There are 37 islands dotted all over the lake and 30 of them house churches and monasteries of great cultural and historical interest. They contain beautiful manuscripts, objects of worship and crosses dating back to the dawn of Christianity.
