The lake lies on a roughly north–south axis, 13 kilometers long by two wide, having 1760 hectares of open water.

The first European to visit Lake Afambo was Wilfred Thesiger, who explored the course of the Awash to its ultimate ending point in 1935.

Thesiger led his party along the eastern and southern sides of this lake.

[2] This area did not see another visitor from outside Ethiopia until Pele Thompson retraced Thesiger's steps in May and June 2001.

There had been a bridge over the channel linking lakes Gummare and Afambo at Ebobe, but it had "collapsed some time ago."