Gahtelai (Arabic: غاهتلاي) is the name of a river, town and plain situated in the Northern Red Sea administrative region of Eritrea.
So, people in Gahtelay uttered the word ‘Gahteley’ or ‘water is back’ whenever it started raining to express their feeling of relief.
For travelers in the area, Gahtelai was one of the hottest and driest places they could ever pass through and as if the sweltering heat and dryness was not enough, the vast plain, which is surrounded by hills, exposed the travellers to attacks from various enemies and bandits.
Today, thanks in large to aid from Israel and the Mashav Centre for International Cooperation, the Gahtelai plain is an agricultural region using drip irrigation technology to harvest melons, tomatoes and various other vegetables and fruits.
Gahtelai is also the name of a seasonal river that starts as runoff from the eastern escarpments of the Eritrean highlands and snakes its way through the town and plain (with the same names) to empty in the Red Sea just north of Massawa.