Lake Hashenge (also ጻዕዳ ባሕሪ Lake Hashange, Lake Hashengi) is a lake in the southern Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Ethiopian highlands at an elevation of 2409 meters, it has no outlet. According to the ''Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68'', Lake Hashenge is five kilometers long and four wide, with a surface area of 20 square kilometers. The British explorer Henry Salt, who notes that the Tigrinya name of the lake is ''Tsada Bahri'' ("White Sea") from the number of birds which cover its surface, records a local tradition that a large city once stood on the site of Hashenge, but "it was destroyed, in his displeasure, by the immediate hand of God." The legend is vivid up to today.

History

On August 29, 1542, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, the leader of the Adal Sultanate, advanced upon the Portuguese stockade near Ofla on the southern side of Ashenge, where he fought the Battle of Ofla and prevailed, afterwards capturing and killing the leader Cristóvão da Gama. Another notable battle that took place on the shores of this lake was the

Battle of Lake Ashenge A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

on 9 October 1909, when Dejazmach

Abate Bwalu State motorcyclists' rights organizations (SMROs) exist in about 32 US states, 25 of which call themselves "ABATE of (state name)," the rest going by various other names. SMROs advocate for the motorcycle rider and freedom on the road. In the mot ...

defeated the rebel forces of Dejazmach

Abraha Araya Abraha ( Ge’ez: አብርሃ) (also spelled Abreha, died after CE 570;Stuart Munro-Hay (2003) "Abraha" in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.) ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. r. 525–at least 553S. C. Munro-Hay (1991) ''Aksum ...

. On 3 April 1936, thousands of soldiers of the Ethiopian Empire were killed with poison gas all around Lake Ashenge. The soldiers were withdrawing from the

Battle of Maychew The Battle of Maychew ( it, Mai Ceu) was the last major battle fought on the northern front during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. The battle consisted of a failed counterattack by the Ethiopian forces under Emperor Haile Selassie making front ...

during the

Second Italo-Abyssinian War The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression which was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Itali ...

. As they withdrew, the Italians sprayed and bombed the area around the lake with

mustard gas Mustard gas or sulfur mustard is a chemical compound belonging to a family of cytotoxic and blister agents known as mustard agents. The name ''mustard gas'' is technically incorrect: the substance, when dispersed, is often not actually a gas, b ...

to deadly effect. On 4 April, Emperor Haile Selassie I looked with despair upon the horrific sight of the dead bodies of his army ringing the poisoned lake. Lake Ashenge, a closed-basin lake near the northernmost penetration of summer monsoon rains, is well placed to provide a continental record of past changes in the strength of the African monsoon system. Diatom and oxygen isotope analyses of the lake sediments confirm that the overall trend of climate change during the past 17,000 years was driven by precessional forcing, punctuated by abrupt shifts that may be linked to changes in Atlantic surface temperatures.

Notes

Sources

* Hshenge Ethiopian Highlands Tigray Region {{Tigray-geo-stub