Blue Nile Falls

The Blue Nile Falls are a waterfall on the Blue Nile river in Ethiopia. They are known as Tis Issat in Amharic, when translated, means "water and smoke." They are situated on the upper course of the river, about 30 kilometers downstream from the town of Bahir Dar and Lake Tana.

The falls are estimated to be between 37 and 45 meters high, consisting of four streams that originally varied from a trickle in the dry season to over 400 meters wide in the rainy season. Regulation of Lake Tana now reduces the variation somewhat, and since 2003 a hydro-electric station has taken much of the flow out of the falls except during the rainy season. [Matt Philips and Jean-Bernard Carillet, "Ethiopia and Eritrea", third edition (n.p.: Lonely Planet, 2006), p. 118] It is considered one of Ethiopia's best known tourist attractions. The millions of gallons of water that cascade over the cliffs create some of the most stunning rainbows.

A short distance further downstream sits the first stone bridge constructed in Ethiopia, built at the command of Emperor Susenyos in 1626. According to Manoel de Almeida, stone for making lime had been found nearby along the tributary Alata, and a craftsman who had come from India with Alfonso Mendez, the Catholic Patriarch of Ethiopia supervised the construction. [C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford, "Some Records of Ethiopia, 1593-1646" (London: Hakluyt Society, 1954), pp. 26f]

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