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The Atbarah River (; transliterated
Arabic transliteration

Different approaches and methods for the romanization of Arabic language exist. They vary in the way that they address the inherent problems of rendering written and spoken Arabic in the Latin alphabet; they also use different symbols for Arabic phonemes that do not exist in English language or other European languages....
: Nahr 'Atbarah) in northeast Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
 rises in northwest Ethiopia
Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
, approximately 50 km north of Lake Tana
Lake Tana

Lake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile and is the largest lake in Ethiopia. Located in the north-western Ethiopian highlands, according to the Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68, the lake is approximately 84 kilometers long and 66 kilometers wide, with a maximum depth of 15 meters, and an elevation of 1,840 meters....
 and 30 km west of Gondar
Gondar

Gondar or Gonder is a city in Ethiopia, which was once the old imperial capital and capital of the historic Begemder province. As a result, the old province of Begemder is sometimes referred to as Gondar....
. It flows about 805 km (500 mi) to the Nile
Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
 in north-central Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
, joining it at the city of Atbarah
Atbarah

Atbarah is a town of 87,878 located in River Nile State in northeastern Sudan.It is located at the junction of the Nile River and Atbarah River rivers....
 . Its tributary
Tributary

A tributary is a stream or river which flows into a Mainstem river. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea. Tributaries and the mainstem river serve to drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater by leading the water out into an ocean or some other large body of water....
, the Tekezé River
Tekezé River

The Tekez? River is a major river of Ethiopia, and forms a section the westernmost border of Ethiopia and Eritrea for part of its course. The river is also known as the Setit in Eritrea, western Ethiopia, and eastern Sudan....
 (Amharic
Amharic language

Amharic is a Semitic languages spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara people. It is the second most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic language, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia....
 for "Terrible"), is perhaps the true upper course of the Atbarah, as the Tekezé follows the longer course prior to the confluence
Confluence (geography)

Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water. It usually refers to the point where a tributary joins a more major river, called the mainstem , when that major river is also the highest Strahler Stream Order in the drainage basin....
 of the two rivers (at 14° 10' N, 36° E) in northeastern Sudan.






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Atbara River Map
The Atbarah River (; transliterated
Arabic transliteration

Different approaches and methods for the romanization of Arabic language exist. They vary in the way that they address the inherent problems of rendering written and spoken Arabic in the Latin alphabet; they also use different symbols for Arabic phonemes that do not exist in English language or other European languages....
: Nahr 'Atbarah) in northeast Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
 rises in northwest Ethiopia
Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
, approximately 50 km north of Lake Tana
Lake Tana

Lake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile and is the largest lake in Ethiopia. Located in the north-western Ethiopian highlands, according to the Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68, the lake is approximately 84 kilometers long and 66 kilometers wide, with a maximum depth of 15 meters, and an elevation of 1,840 meters....
 and 30 km west of Gondar
Gondar

Gondar or Gonder is a city in Ethiopia, which was once the old imperial capital and capital of the historic Begemder province. As a result, the old province of Begemder is sometimes referred to as Gondar....
. It flows about 805 km (500 mi) to the Nile
Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
 in north-central Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
, joining it at the city of Atbarah
Atbarah

Atbarah is a town of 87,878 located in River Nile State in northeastern Sudan.It is located at the junction of the Nile River and Atbarah River rivers....
 . Its tributary
Tributary

A tributary is a stream or river which flows into a Mainstem river. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea. Tributaries and the mainstem river serve to drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater by leading the water out into an ocean or some other large body of water....
, the Tekezé River
Tekezé River

The Tekez? River is a major river of Ethiopia, and forms a section the westernmost border of Ethiopia and Eritrea for part of its course. The river is also known as the Setit in Eritrea, western Ethiopia, and eastern Sudan....
 (Amharic
Amharic language

Amharic is a Semitic languages spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara people. It is the second most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic language, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia....
 for "Terrible"), is perhaps the true upper course of the Atbarah, as the Tekezé follows the longer course prior to the confluence
Confluence (geography)

Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water. It usually refers to the point where a tributary joins a more major river, called the mainstem , when that major river is also the highest Strahler Stream Order in the drainage basin....
 of the two rivers (at 14° 10' N, 36° E) in northeastern Sudan. The Atbarah is the last tributary of the Nile before it reaches the Mediterranean.

For much of the year, it is little more than a stream. However during the rainy season (generally June to October), the Atbarah rises some 18 ft (5 m) above its normal level. At this time it forms a formidable barrier between the northern and central districts of the Amhara Region
Amhara Region

Amhara is one of the nine Regions of Ethiopia of Ethiopia, containing the homeland of the Amhara people. Previously known as Region 3, its capital is Bahir Dar....
 of Ethiopia. Besides the Tekezé, important tributaries of the Atbarah include the Shinfa River which rises west of Lake Tana, and the Greater Angereb which has its source north of the city of Gondar
Gondar

Gondar or Gonder is a city in Ethiopia, which was once the old imperial capital and capital of the historic Begemder province. As a result, the old province of Begemder is sometimes referred to as Gondar....
.

The earliest surviving mention of the Atbarah is by Strabo
Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
 (16.4.8), who called the river the "Astaboras", which Richard Pankhurst
Richard Pankhurst (academic)

Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst is an academic with expertise in the study of Ethiopia.Pankhurst was born in 1927 in Woodford Green to left communist and former suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst - already 45 years old - and Italian anarchist Silvo Corio....
 argues should be understood as "Asta of the Boras people" or "River of the Boras people", and points to a number of Roman allusions to a people named the Bora, who lived near Meroe
Meroë

Mero? is the name of an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum....
. Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
 provides a slightly different etymology of Astaboras, stating that "in the language of the local people" the name means "water coming from the shades below" (N.H. 5.10).

A major battle
Battle of Atbara

The Battle of Atbara took place during the Mahdist_War#The_return_of_the_British. Anglo-Egyptian forces defeated 15,000 Sudanese rebels, called Mahdists or Dervishes....
 was fought beside the river in April 1898 between forces of the Khalifa of Sudan and the British Empire
British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, and other Dependent territory ruled or administered by the United Kingdom , that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries....
, which resulted in the Khalifa's 20,000-strong detachment being destroyed by the British. In 1964, the river was dammed at Kashm-el-Girba in Sudan to provide irrigation in an otherwise fairly arid region.

See also

  • List of Ethiopian rivers
  • List of rivers of Sudan
    List of rivers of Sudan

    This is a list of streams and rivers in Sudan...


External links

  • - Perry-Castańeda Library Map Collection, University of Texas
    University of Texas at Austin

    The University of Texas at Austin is a public university research university located in Austin, Texas, Texas, United States, and is the flagship#University campuses institution of University of Texas System....