Reb River is a river of north-central
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
which empties into
Lake TanaLake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile and is the largest lake in Ethiopia...
at 12°2′N 37°35′E. The river originates on the slopes of
Mount GunaMount Guna or Guna Terara is a mountain located near the city of Debre Tabor, in Ethiopia, in the Amhara region. It is the highest point in the Debub Gondar Zone....
, and flows west through
KemekemKemekem is one of the 105 woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Debub Gondar Zone, Kemekem is bordered on the south by the Reb which separates it from Fogera, on the west by Lake Tana, on the north by the Semien Gondar Zone, and on the east by Ebenat...
woredaWoreda is an administrative division of Ethiopia , equivalent to a district . Woredas are composed of a number of Kebele, or neighborhood associations, which are the smallest unit of local government in Ethiopia...
. It has no significant tributaries.
R.E. Cheesman described the Reb in 1936 as bringing "down quantities of dark sand, and we passed banks of it deposited on the lake shore. The river bar, 600 yards out in the lake, is a semicircle, and parties of travellers with loaded donkeys were passing round it instead of crossing the river." Merchants based in Yifag would transport bars of
saltIn chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
or
amoleh in small boats or
tankwas down the Reb to Zege on the lake to trade for
coffeeCoffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
.
The Reb was also the site of one of several stone bridges built during the time of the Jesuit missionaries or the reign of
FasilidesFasilides was of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty...
. Consisting of five arches, it was located 24 kilometres (14.9 mi) from the estuary and enabled travel between
GondarGondar 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...
and
Debre TaborDebre Tabor is a town and a woreda in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, about 100 kilometers southeast of Gondar and 50 kilometers east of Lake Tana, this historic town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 2706 meters above...
. During the
Italian occupationItalian East Africa was an Italian colonial administrative subdivision established in 1936, resulting from the merger of the Ethiopian Empire with the old colonies of Italian Somaliland and Italian Eritrea. In August 1940, British Somaliland was conquered and annexed to Italian East Africa...
, the Italians built a bridge over the river with wooden supports, but it was damaged during the British campaign.
On 21 June 2007, the
World BankThe World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
announced that it had approved an International Development Association credit of US$100 million for an Irrigation and Drainage project covering the Magech and Reb rivers, as part of the
Nile Basin InitiativeThe Nile Basin Initiative is a partnership among the Nile riparian states that “seeks to develop the river in a cooperative manner, share substantial socioeconomic benefits, and promote regional peace and security”...
. With the goal of increasing irrigated agricultural output, this proposed project will develop incrementally a total area of 20,000 hectares.