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Blue Nile Falls - Smoke of Fire Locally known as Tis Isat — ‘Smoke of Fire' - the Blue Nile Falls is the most dramatic spectacle on either the White or the Blue Nile rivers. Four hundred metres (1,312 feet) wide when in flood, and dropping over a sheer chasm more than forty-five metres (150 feet) deep, the falls throw up a continuous spray of water, which drenches onlookers up to kilometers away. This misty deluge produces rainbows, shimmering across the gorge, and a small perennial rainforest of lush green vegetation, to the delight of the many monkeys and multicolored birds that inhabit the area. The site overlooking the waterfall has had many notable visitors over the years, including the late eighteenth-century traveler James Bruce, and, in more recent times, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain |
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Lake Tana: Source of the Blue Nile Rivaling the attraction of the Blue Nile Falls are the thirty- seven islands scattered about on the 3,000-square-kilometre (1,860-square-mile) surface of Ethiopia 's largest body of water, Lake Tana . Twenty of these islands shelter churches and monasteries of significant historical and cultural interest. They are decorated with beautiful paintings and are the repository of innumerable treasures. |
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BAHAR DAR Bahar Dar for centuries has been a place of commercial importance. It was and still is visited by papyrus canoes made by a lakeside people called the Woyto, who ply these craft across the waters of the lake. Open at the back end, the boats appear dangerously fragile as they slide over the surface, but they continue to carry passengers and goods to and from the many islands in the lake as they have done for centuries. These reed boats were, and still are, constructed at Bahar Dar and in the nearby Fogerra area. Bahar Dar, situated as it is on the southern extremity of Lake Tana, provides access to both the lake and its many islands, and to the Blue Nile Falls . The visitor to Bahar Dar will no doubt see this papyrus canoes on the lakeshore and may at times catch glimpses of their construction. Still standing is the building erected by the Jesuit Pero Paes, which can be seen in the compound of Saint George's church. Bahar Dar, though bustling and pretty, is often looked at as just a base from which to visit the area's two main attractions: the Blue Nile Falls and Lake Tana . |
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Birds:
More than 800 bird species are found in Ethiopia, of which 16 are endemic. A further 14 species are shared with Eritrea, which was part of Ethiopia until 1991. Ethiopia's diverse habitats, highlands, lowlands, forests, lakes, wetlands and riverine systems provide sites for wintering or passage birds. |
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