- Awash River
Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Lower Valley of the Awash
State Party = ETH
Type = Cultural
Criteria = ii, iii, iv
ID = 10
Region = Africa
Year = 1980
Session = 4th
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/10The Awash (sometimes spelled Hawash) is a major river ofEthiopia . Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia, and empties into a chain of interconnected lakes that begin withLake Gargori and end withLake Abbe (or Abhe Bad) on the border withDjibouti , some 100 kilometers (60 or 70 miles) from the head of theGulf of Tadjoura . It is the principal stream of anendorheic drainage basin covering parts of the Amhara, Oromia andSomali Region s, as well as the southern half of theAfar Region .The Awash rises south of
Mount Warqe , west ofAddis Ababa in the woreda ofEjerie , Mirab (West) Shewa Zone, Oromia. Thence the Awash flows south to loop aroundMount Zuqualla in an easterly then northeasterly direction, passing theAwash National Park , and joined on its left bank by its chief affluent, the Germama (or Kasam) River, before turning northeast at approximately 11° N 40° 30' E as far north as 12° before turning completely east to reach lake Gargori.According to the "Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68", the Awash River is 1200 kilometers long. The author of the 1911
Encyclopædia Britannica article describes its middle portion as "a copious stream nearly 200 feet [60 meters] wide and 4 feet [1.2 meters] deep in the dry season, and during the floods rising 50 or 60 feet [15 to 20 meters] above low-water mark, thus inundating the plains for many miles along both its banks."Other tributaries of the Awash include (in order upstream): the Logiya, Mille, Borkana, Ataye, Hawadi, Kabenna and
Durkham River s. Towns and cities along its course includeMetehara ,Awash ,Gewane andAsaita .History
Humans have lived in the valley of the Awash since the beginning of the species. The
Middle Awash has been where numerous pre-human hominid remains have been found.The valley of the Awash from about 9° N downstream is the traditional home of the
Afar people . The valley of the Awash have been included as part of the territories of the historic provinces or kingdoms ofDawaro ,Fatagar ,Ifat , andShewa . [Richard Pankhurst, "The Ethiopian Borderlands" (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1997), p. 61] Except for Shewa, these provinces disappeared with the arrival of groups of theOromo in the 16th century.The first European to trace the course of the Awash to its end in the
Aussa oasis wasWilfred Thesiger in 1933/1934, who started at the city of Awash, followed the river's course to its final end in Lake Abhebad, and continued his expedition west toTadjoura .In 1960, the Koka Dam was completed across the Awash River at a point about 75 kilometers from Addis Ababa, and with its opening became a major source of
hydroelectric power in the area. The resulting freshwater lake, Lake Gelila (also known as theKoka Reservoir ), has an area of about 180 square kilometers. Both lake and dam are threatened by increasingsedimentation .The
Awash International Bank is named for the Awash River.See also
*
List of Ethiopian rivers
*List of fossil sites "(with link directory)"
*List of hominina (hominid) fossils "(with images)"Notes
Further reading
* Zewdu Tememew Molla, "Dam Safety Evaluation on Koka Dam, Ethiopia". M.Sc. thesis, 2005. [http://www.siu.no/noradrap.nsf/47f75ef09dd0a55b41256837007a30f9/1294a22b53480d6ac12570980034b95c!OpenDocument abstract]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.