Abay River

Encyclopedia : A : AB : ABA : Abay River

The Abay River is a river in Ethiopia. Locally it is also known as the Gihon, and believed to be the same river flowing out of the Garden of Eden in the Bible. The river is considered holy by many in Ethiopia. The river forms the upper part of the Blue Nile, and the majority of the water in the Nile originates in the Abay.

The Abay rises at Lake Tana and flows for some thirty kilometers before plunging over the Tis Issat Falls. The river then loops across northeast Ethiopia through a series of deep valleys and canyons into Sudan, where it is called the Blue Nile. According to the Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68, the Abay River is 1450 kilometers long, extending for 800 kilometers inside Ethiopia and 650 inside Sudan.

Some of the earliest human remains have been found in this area.

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