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Guide to Ethiopia

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In the middle of the great Ethiopian plateau, at 1800m above sea level and with an area of 3000 square kilometres lies Lake Tana, a huge inland sea to the south of the city of Gondar. Here rise two of Ethiopia's major rivers, the Tekeze in the north and the Blue Nile in the south.

It was the great explorer James Bruce who, in the late 18th century, found his way to Lake Tana to discover the source of the Blue Nile (a story told very accessibly in Alan Moorhead's book of that name).

The great river, supplying over 90% of Egypt's water supply, tumbles off the plateau at the Tississat Falls near Bahar Dar and makes its way to the Sudan where it is joined by the White Nile before continuing its way to the Mediterranean Sea.

The Tekeze river runs north from the lake and encircles the Simien mountain range north of Gondar. It provides a centre for white water canoeing for Ethiopia's developing tourist industry.

Other great rivers that cut their valleys through the Ethiopian countryside are the Omo and the Awash in the south-east and the Wabe Shebelle in the south-west.

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