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30-397: Gorgora is a peninsula on the north shore of lake Tana . It has some 12 kilometers of width in its southern parts and stands on strategic location, an elevated rocky promontory overlooking the lake and next to a series of islands suitable for habitation. Gorgora refers to a small peninsula jutting into Lake Tana as well as to a small village hosting a harbor. The peninsula was important in

60-552: A detailed examination of the lake, enabling substantially accurate maps, and counted 44 islands. A 20th-century geographer named 37 islands, of which he believed 19 have or had monasteries or churches on them. Remains of ancient Ethiopian emperors and treasures of the Ethiopian Church are kept in the isolated island monasteries (including Kebran Gabriel , Ura Kidane Mehret , Narga Selassie , Daga Estifanos , Medhane Alem of Rema , Kota Maryam, and Mertola Maryam). On

90-482: A small delta. The river originates on the slopes of Mount Guna , and flows west through Kemekem woreda . It has no significant tributaries. R.E. Cheesman described the Reb in 1936 as bringing "down quantities of dark sand, and we passed banks of it deposited on the lake shore. The river bar, 600 yards out in the lake, is a semicircle, and parties of travellers with loaded donkeys were passing round it instead of crossing

120-694: A source of the Blue Nile . Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands , the lake is approximately 84 kilometres (52 miles) long and 66 kilometres (41 miles) wide, with a maximum depth of 15 metres (49 feet), and an elevation of 1,788 metres (5,866 feet). Lake Tana is fed by the Gilgel Abay , Reb and Gumara rivers. Its surface area ranges from 3,000 to 3,500 square kilometres (1,200 to 1,400 square miles), depending on season and rainfall. The lake level has been regulated since

150-453: A status) by the IUCN . In the early 2000s, the local government for the first time introduced a fisheries legislation and it is hoped this will have a positive effect on the fish populations. Other serious threats are habitat destruction and pollution. Bahir Dar has become a large city and it is rapidly growing; its wastewater is generally released directly into the lake. The vegetation in

180-565: Is an important resting and feeding ground for many Palearctic migrant waterbirds. There are no crocodiles , but the African softshell turtle and Nile monitor have been recorded near the Blue Nile outflow from the lake. Hippos are present, mostly near the Blue Nile outflow. Reb River The Reb (also transliterated as Rib ; Amharic "bottom, buttocks" ) is a river of north-central Ethiopia which empties into Lake Tana in

210-1127: Is obstructed by the Blue Nile Falls , the lake supports a highly distinctive aquatic fauna, which generally is related to species from the Nile Basin . The lake's nutrient levels are low. There are 27 fish species in Lake Tana and 20 of these are endemic . This includes one of only two known cyprinid species flocks (the other, from Lake Lanao in the Philippines, has been decimated by introduced species). It consists of 15 relatively large, up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) long, Labeobarbus barbs that formerly were included in Barbus instead. Among these, L. acutirostris , L. longissimus , L. megastoma and L. truttiformis are strictly piscivorous , and L. dainellii , L. gorguari , L. macrophtalmus and L. platydorsus are mostly piscivorous. Their most important prey are

240-710: Is the Ethiopic bastardization of the Greek name "Γρηγόριος" (Gregorios). The city is named after the 4th-century Saint & Church Father Gregory the Illuminator , who is a prominent figure in Ethiopian Orthodox Theology. Ruins of the structures the Jesuits built can still be seen, although most of the buildings were destroyed following an earthquake in the 1950s. Their construction is credited to

270-550: The Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Gorgora has an estimated total population of 4783, of whom 2283 are men and 2500 are women. The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 2,768 of whom 1,201 were men and 1,567 were women. Lake Tana Lake Tana ( Amharic : ጣና ሐይቅ , romanized :  T’ana ḥāyik’i ; previously transcribed Tsana ) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and

300-698: The British campaign. Osvaldo Zappa On 21 June 2007, the World Bank announced that it had approved an International Development Association credit of US$ 100 million for an Irrigation and Drainage project covering the Magech and Reb rivers, as part of the Nile Basin Initiative . With the goal of increasing irrigated agricultural output, this proposed project will develop incrementally a total area of 20,000 hectares. This article related to

330-704: The Italian Government in 1939. It was designed by my father Ottavio Zappa. I have in my possession the original photograph of the bridge that is now posted at the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Osvaldo Zappa p. During the Italian occupation , the Italians built a stone bridge over the river and was not a wooden one as is claimed and was not damaged during

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360-524: The Italians had one battalion at Gorgora; within a month the garrison was 1500 strong. In 1960 the public health service set up a center in this town, one of the first four in the countryside of Ethiopia. Gorgora was selected due to its proximity to the Public Health College in Gondar. The water hyacinth plant was rapidly invading Lake Tana around Gorgora in 2018. Based on figures from

390-573: The Middle Ages over earlier religious sites. They include the fourteenth-century Debre Maryam , and the eighteenth-century Narga Selassie, Tana Qirqos (said to have housed the Ark of the Covenant before it was moved to Axum ), and Ura Kidane Mehret, known for its regalia. A ferry service links Bahir Dar with Gorgora via Dek Island and various lakeshore villages. There is also Zege Peninsula on

420-412: The construction of the control weir where the lake discharges into the Blue Nile. This controls the flow to the Blue Nile Falls (Tis Abbai) and hydro-power station. In 2015, the Lake Tana region was nominated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve recognizing its national and international natural and cultural importance. Lake Tana was formed by volcanic activity, blocking the course of inflowing rivers in

450-495: The early Pleistocene epoch, about 5 million years ago. The lake was originally much larger than it is today. Seven large permanent rivers feed the lake as well as 40 small seasonal rivers. The main tributaries to the lake are Gilgel Abbay (Little Nile River), and the Megech, Gumara, and Rib rivers. Lake Tana has a number of islands, whose number varies depending on the level of the lake. It has fallen about 6 feet (1.8 m) in

480-554: The endemic subspecies tana in the lake), E. humilis , G. dembecha , G. dembeensis and the large African sharptooth catfish . Lake Tana supports a large fishing industry, mainly based on the Labeobarbus barbs, Nile tilapia and sharptooth catfish. According to the Ethiopian Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, 1,454 tons of fish were landed in 2011 at Bahir Dar , which the department estimated

510-680: The island of Tana Qirqos is a rock shown to Paul B. Henze , on which he was told the Virgin Mary had rested on her journey back from Egypt ; he was also told that Frumentius , who introduced Christianity to Ethiopia, is "allegedly buried on Tana Cherqos." The body of Yekuno Amlak is interred in the monastery of St. Stephen on Daga Island . Emperors whose tombs are also on Daga include Dawit I , Zara Yaqob , Za Dengel , and Fasilides . Other important islands in Lake Tana include Dek , Mitraha , Gelila Zakarias , Halimun and Briguida . The monasteries are believed to have been built during

540-574: The lake's wetlands, which are an important nursery for the Labeobarbus and other fish, are being cleared at a fast pace. A potentially serious threat to the unique ecosystem would be an introduction of a large and efficient predatory species like the Nile perch , which has been implicated in numerous extinctions in Lake Victoria . The piscivorous Labeobarbus of Lake Tana are relatively inefficient predators that can only take fish up to about 15% of

570-416: The land. Ferries sail from the port to Bahir Dar via Kunzela and Dek Island . Gorgora served as one of the early capitals of Ethiopia during the reigns of Emperor Susenyos I and his son Fasilides before Fasilides founded Gondar . It was selected as a capital as it started with the letter "gʷa" (Ge'ez: ጐ), as dictated by a prophecy of the time (the same prophecy led to the rise of Gondar). Gorgora

600-414: The last 400 years. According to Manoel de Almeida (a Portuguese missionary in the early 17th century), there were 21 islands, seven to eight of which had monasteries on them "formerly large, but now much diminished." When James Bruce visited the area in 1771, he noted that the locals counted 45 inhabited islands, but stated he believed that "the number may be about eleven." Anton Stecker, in 1881, made

630-460: The length of the predator itself. Among other fauna, the lake supports relatively few invertebrates: There are fifteen species of mollusks , including one endemic, and also an endemic freshwater sponge . About 230 species of birds, including more than 80 wetland birds such as the great white pelican , African darter , hamerkop , storks , African spoonbill , ibis , ducks , kingfishers and African fish eagle , are known from Lake Tana. It

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660-701: The missionary Pedro Paez , who also succeeded in converting Emperor Susenyos to Catholicism. The town is known for the Debre Sina church (built in 1608), its many monasteries , the palace of the Emperor Susenyos located nearby, and the Portuguese cathedral that was abandoned after Emperor Fasilides expelled the Jesuits. Gorgora formed part of the defenses of the Italian last stand , under General Guglielmo Nasi , around Gondar. In October 1941,

690-402: The monastery as being enclosed by a high wall and no woman is allowed inside its gate. There are 150 residents, monks, the monastery is governed by an Abbot who has the power of putting refractory monks in chains, and is all powerful in his own monastery. Cheesman was told that if a man fleeing from justice rings the monastery bell and is given sanctuary, he is safe from even the highest person in

720-609: The others), L. nedgia and L. tsanensis on benthic invertebrates like chironomid larvae. Among the endemic Labeobarbus , eight species spawn in the lake's wetlands and the remaining move seasonally into its tributaries where they spawn. In addition to the Labeobarbus species flock, the endemic species are Enteromius pleurogramma , E. tanapelagius , Garra regressus and Afronemacheilus abyssinicus (one of only two African stone loaches ). The remaining non-endemic species are Nile tilapia (widespread in Africa, but with

750-417: The past as the site of an important Jesuit residence: "Old" Gorgora was located 5  km northeast, inland from Maryam Gimb, which was called [New] Gorgora, and 5  km west of Debre Sina and its churches (usually not considered a town in its own right). Other notable landmarks include the monastery of Mandaba, located at the headlands of Gorgora peninsula. R.E. Cheesman visited Mandaba in 1932 and described

780-601: The river." Merchants based in Yifag would transport bars of salt or amoleh in small boats or tankwas down the Reb to Zege on the lake to trade for coffee . The Reb was also the site of one of several stone bridges built during the time of the Jesuit missionaries or the reign of Fasilides . The river consisting of five arches, it was located 24 kilometers (15 mi) from the estuary and enabled travel between Gondar and Debre Tabor . The five arches bridge]was built by

810-549: The small Enteromius and Garra species. The remaining Labeobarbus in Lake Tana have other specialized feeding habits: L. beso (non-endemic and not closely related to the others) feeds on algae , L. surkis mostly on macrophytes , L. gorgorensis on macrophytes and molluscs , L. brevicephalus on zooplankton (however, juveniles of all members of the species flock feed on zooplankton), L. osseensis on macrophytes and adults insects, and L. crassibarbis , L. intermedius (non-endemic but closely related to

840-486: The southwest portion of the lake. Zege is the site of the Azwa Maryam monastery. Compared to other tropical lakes, the waters in Lake Tana are relatively cold, typically ranging from about 20 to 27 °C (68–81 °F). The water has a pH that is neutral to somewhat alkaline and its transparency is quite low. Because of the large seasonal variations in the inflow of its tributaries, rain and evaporation,

870-471: The water levels of Lake Tana typically vary by 2–2.5 m (6.6–8.2 ft) in a year, peaking in September–October just after the main wet season. When the water levels are high, the plains around the lake often are flooded and other permanent swamps in the region become connected to the lake. Since there are no inflows that link the lake to other large waterways and the main outflow, the Blue Nile ,

900-468: Was 15% of its sustainable amount. Nevertheless, in a review that compared catches in 2001 to those ten years earlier, it was found that typical sizes of both the tilapia and the catfish had significantly decreased, and populations of the Labeobarbus barbs that breed in the tributaries had significantly declined. Among the endemic fish, most are considered threatened ( endangered or vulnerable ) or data deficient (available data insufficient for evaluating

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