The source of Great Nile; Lake Tana in Ethopia
Located in northern Ethopia, Lake Tana extends over an area of 3000km2 but with a depth of only 14 meters. The lake’s only outflow is the Blue Nile. Set at more than 1,800m above sea level , it is 75km long and 60 km wide with more than 30 islands shrouded in history, Christian monasteries and natural beauty.
Majestic and mysterious, the lake lies south west of Simien Mountains. It remained long hidden from western geographers and exploers. The entire history of Nile exploration is filled with legendary stories.
Even in ancient Greece, the source of the Nile was considered one of the earth’s most compelling mysteries, written about extensively by the 460 BC historian Herodotus, who believed the river sprang from between two massive mountains. Later, the Emperor Nero ordered his Centurions to follow the Nile in search of this rumored source, though these brave early explorers were bogged down in the swampy marshes of the Sudd (near the Ugandan border) and got no further. Historians explain that between the 4th and 17th centuries, the upper Nile in Ethiopia was largely forgotten by the rest of the world. Only missionaries, merchants and adventurers reached the Ethiopian highlands. By the 17th century, attracted by the legend of a Christian kingdom isolated in the heart of East Africa and surrounded by Islamic warriors, Portugal sent missionaries and soldiers to help the Ethiopian rulers and to protect the faith. It was the first contact for centuries between Europe and the old, exotic Ethiopian Christian kingdom (mentioned in some chronicals as the ‘Preste Juan’ kingdom). The Portuguese built castles and bridges and provided cannons to ward off the Islamic conquerors.
Padre Paez (-1622): This brave Spanish missionary, who was sent to Ethiopia in the beginning of the XVII century to convert the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to Catholicism and who became a close friend of the Emperor Susinios, travelled through the country undertaking many risky expeditions. He was the first westerner to ‘discover’ and to describe the source of the Blue Nile. Paez saw the sources of the Blue Nile on April 21st, 1618: ‘
I confess I feel fortunate and happy for seeing what Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and the Kings Ciro and Cambesses desired to see in the past but never accomplished’.
Padre Paez was a very humble person who never proclaimed his achievement as a ‘discovery’. He always explained and wrote in his notes that he ’saw’ the source of the Nile, given the Ethiopians already knew it and venerated its sacred waters. They called the source ‘Guish Abbay’ and the first section of the Blue Nile the ‘Guelguel Abbay.’ Padre Paez has been recognized in 2003 by the Ethiopian authorities as the first European to visit the source of the Blue Nile.
Years after, the explorer James Bruce knew the story of Padre Paez, but still proclaimed himself as the ‘discoverer’ of the Blue Nile source. The expedition of Bruce, Burton, Baker revealed the ‘,secret’. Bruckhart Waldekker: A little-known German explorer, Waldekker quietly proved in 1937 that the main source of the Nile is the Ethiopian highlands, which contribute more than 85% of the river’s water, while Lake Victoria contributes only 15%. It was confirmed, the White Nile originates from Lake Victoria and the Blue Nile from Lake Tana. The Two rivers merge at Khartoum in Sudan and travel onwards to Egypt .It plunges more than 2000m in its 800km course from Ethiopia to the plains of Sudan. It begins its journey from the monsoon experienced in the highlands in June- July. A thundering 50m cascade over Tissisat Falls develops and joins the downstream 30km to Lake Tana.
National Geographic Society in 1999 undertook an expedition which ran 500 miles of the Blue Nile from the second Portuguese Bridge to the Sudanese border. The first time this length had been covered in an unbroken journey. Veteran river guide Michael Speaks led the journey which also ran into numerous hazards, including crocodiles and large rapids that had to be portaged in extremely remote country. National Geographic Magazine depicted the area’s people and landscape in an article about the expedition - the first time most Westerners had ever seen the spectacular beauty of the Blue Nile.
