Blue Nile

Map of the Blue Nile

The Blue Nile (Amharic: ዓባይ^?; transliterated: ʿAbbai, but pronounced Abbai; Arabic: النيل الأزرق‎; transliterated: an-Nīl al-Āzraq) is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. With the White Nile, the river is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile. The upper reaches of the river is called the Abbay in Ethiopia, where it is considered holy by many, and is believed to be the Gihon river mentioned as flowing out of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2.^[1]

Overview

The Blue Nile flows generally south from Lake Tana and then west across Ethiopia and northwest into Sudan. Within 30 km (18.6 mi) of its source at Lake Tana, the river enters a canyon about 400 km long. This gorge is a tremendous obstacle for travel and communication from the north half of Ethiopia to the southern half. The power of the Blue Nile may best be appreciated at Tis Issat Falls, which are 45 m (148 ft) high, located about 40 km (25 mi) downstream of Lake Tana.

Blue Nile Falls (Tis Issat) at Lake Tana

Although there are several feeder streams that flow into Lake Tana, the sacred source of the river is generally considered to be a small spring at Gish Abbai at an altitude of approximately 2,744 meters (9,003 ft). This stream, known as the Lesser Abay, flows north into Lake Tana. Other affluents of this lake include, in clockwise order from Gorgora, the Magech, the northern Gumara, the Reb, the southern Gumara, and the Kilte.^[2] Lake Tana's outflow then flows some thirty kilometers before plunging over the Tis Issat Falls. The river then loops across northwest Ethiopia through a series of deep valleys and canyons into Sudan, by which point it is only known as the Blue Nile.

There are numerous tributaries of the Abay between Lake Tana and the Sudanese border. Those on its left bank, in downstream order, include the Wanqa, the Bashilo, the Walaqa, the Wanchet, the Jamma, the Muger, the Guder, the Agwel, the Nedi, the Didessa, and the Dabus. Those on the right side, also in downstream order, include the Handassa, Tul, Abaya, Sade, Tammi, Cha, Shita, Suha, Muga, Bachat, Katlan, Jiba, Chamoga, Weter, and the Beles.^[2]

Much later the Blue Nile joins the White Nile at Khartoum, Sudan and, as the Nile, flows through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea at Alexandria. The Blue Nile is so-called because during flood times the water current is so high, it changes color to an almost black; since in the local Sudanese language the word for black is also used for the color blue.

The distance from its source to its confluence is variously reported as 1460 and 1600 kilometers (907 and 1000 miles). The uncertainty over its length might partially result from the fact that it flows through a virtually impenetrable gorges cut in the Ethiopian highlands to a depth of some 1500 meters (4950 feet)—a depth comparable to that of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in the United States.

The flow of the Blue Nile reaches maximum volume in the rainy season (from June to September), when it supplies about two thirds of the water of the Nile proper. The Blue Nile, along with that of the Atbara River to the north, which also flows out of the Ethiopian highlands, were responsible for the annual Nile floods that contributed to the fertility of the Nile Valley and the consequent rise of ancient Egyptian civilization and Egyptian Mythology. With the completion in 1970 of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt, the Nile floods ended.

The Blue Nile is vital to the livelihood of Egypt. Though shorter than the White Nile, 56% of the water that reaches Egypt originates from the Blue Nile branch of the great river; when combined with the Atbara River, which also has its source in the Ethiopian Highlands, the figure rises to 90% of the water and 96% of transported sediment.The river is also an important resource for Sudan, where the Roseires and Sennar dams produce 80% of the country's power. These dams also help irrigate the Gezira Plain, which is most famous for its high quality cotton. The region also produces wheat, and animal feed crops.

European exploration

According to the British consul R E Cheesman, the first European to have seen the Blue Nile in Ethiopia and the river's source was Pedro Paez, a Spanish Jesuit who reached the river's source 21 April 1613.^[3] Nevertheless, the Spaniard Juan Bermúdez provided the first description of the Tis Issat Falls in his memoirs (published in 1565), and a number of Europeans who lived in Ethiopia in the late 15th century like Pero da Covilhã could have seen the river long before Paez.

Although a number of European explorers contemplated tracing the course of the Blue Nile from its confluence with the White Nile to Lake Tana, its gorge, which begins a few miles inside the Ethiopian border, has discouraged all attempts since Frédéric Cailliaud's attempt in 1821. The first serious attempt by a non-local to explore this reach of the river was undertaken by the American W.W. Macmillan in 1902, assisted by the Norwegian explorer B.H. Jenssen; Jenssen would proceed upriver from Khartoum while Macmillan sailed downstream from Lake Tana. However Jenssen's boats were blocked by the rapids at Famaka short of the Sudan-Ethiopian border, and Macmillan's boats were wrecked shortly after they had been launched. Macmillan encouraged Jenssen to try to sail upstream from Khartoum again in 1905, but he was forced to stop 300 miles short of Lake Tana.^[4] Consul Cheesman, who records his surprise on arriving in Ethiopia at finding that the upper waters of "one of the most famous of the rivers of the world, and one whose name was well known to the ancients" was in his lifetime "marked on the map by dotted lines", managed to map the upper course of the Blue Nile between 1925-1933. He did this not by following the river along its banks and through its impassible canyon, but following it from the highlands above, traveling some 5,000 miles by mule in the adjacent country.^[5]

In 1968 at the request of Emperor Haile Salassie Emperor of Ethiopia, a team of 60 British and Ethiopian servicemen and scientists made the first descent of the Blue Nile from Lake Tana to a point near the Sudan border led by the eminent explorer Captain (now Colonel) John Blashford-Snell. The team used specially built Avon inflatables and modified Royal Engineer Assault boats to navigate the formidable rapids. This expedition made many important scientific discoveries^{[citation needed]}. They also had to fight off two attacks by bandits.

On April 28, 2004, geologist Pasquale Scaturro and his partner, kayaker and documentary filmmaker Gordon Brown, became the first people to navigate the Blue Nile. Though their expedition included a number of others, Brown and Scaturro were the only ones to remain on the expedition for the entire journey. They chronicled their adventure with an IMAX camera and two handheld video cams, sharing their story in the IMAX film Mystery of the Nile and in a book of the same title.^[6] Despite this attempt, the team was forced to use outboard motors for most of their journey, and it was not until January 29, 2005, when Canadian Les Jickling and New Zealander Mark Tanner reached the Mediterranean Sea, that the river had been paddled for the first time under human power from source to sea.

In 1999, writer Virginia Morell[1] and photographer Nevada Wier made the journey by raft from Lake Tana to the Sudan, afterwards publishing a documentary about their journey.[2]

See also

• List of rivers of Sudan
• White Nile

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Blue Nile

• The Tana Project
• The Blue Nile Falls
• Rafting Down the Blue Nile
• Paddling the Blue Nile

Coordinates: 12°0′N 37°15′E / 12°N 37.25°E / 12; 37.25