Blue Nile Falls

It is situated on the upper course of the river, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) downstream from the town of Bahir Dar and Lake Tana.

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.

[2] The Blue Nile Falls isolate the ecology of Lake Tana from the ecology of the rest of the Nile, and this isolation has played a role in the evolution of the endemic fauna of the lake.

[3] A short distance downstream from the falls sits the first stone bridge constructed in Ethiopia, built at the command of Emperor Susenyos in 1626.

According to Manuel de Almeida, stone for making lime had been found nearby along the Blue Nile tributary Alata, and a craftsman who had come from India with Afonso Mendes, the Catholic Patriarch of Ethiopia, supervised the construction.