Hora-Dambal also known as Lake Zway or Dambal ( Oromo: ''Hora Dambal'',

Amharic Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...

: ዟይ ሐይቅ) is one of the freshwater

Rift Valley lakes The Rift Valley lakes are a series of lakes in the East African Rift valley that runs through eastern Africa from Ethiopia in the north to Malawi in the south, and includes the African Great Lakes in the south. These include some of the world's ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. It is located about 100 miles south of

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

, on the border between the

Oromia Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa. It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Benish ...

and

Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region The Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (often abbreviated as SNNPR; am, የደቡብ ብሔር ብሔረሰቦችና ሕዝቦች ክልል, Yädäbub Bḥer Bḥeräsäbočna Hzboč Kllə) is a regional state in southwestern E ...

; the

woreda Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas ( am, ወረዳ; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''zones'' and the '' regional states''. These districts are further subdivided into a number of ...

s holding the lake's shoreline are Adami Tullu Jido Kombolcha,

Dugda Dugda (also known as Deonagar) is a census town in the Chandrapura CD block in the Bermo subdivision of the Bokaro district in the state of Jharkhand, India. It is a small township, constructed during the 1970s, situated under the foot of s ...

, and Batu town. The town of Batu lies on the lake's western shore. The lake is fed primarily by two rivers, the

Meki Meki ( am, መቂ; om, Maqii) is a town in east-central Ethiopia. Located in the East Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1636 meters above sea level. Meki is the administrative center of Dugd ...

from the west and the Katar from the east, and is drained by the Bulbula which empties into

Lake Abijatta Lake Abijatta is an alkaline lake in Ethiopia. It lies in the Main Ethiopian Rift valley south of Addis Ababa, in the Abijatta-Shalla National Park. Overview According to the ''Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68'', the lake is 17 kil ...

. The lake's catchment has an area of 7025 square kilometers. Hora-Dambal is 31 kilometers long and 20 km wide, with a surface area of 440 square kilometers. It has a maximum depth of 9 meters and is at an elevation of 1,636 meters. According to the ''Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68'', Lake Ziway is 25 kilometers long and 20 km wide, with a surface area of 434 square kilometers. It has a maximum depth of 4 meters and is at an elevation of 1,846 meters. It contains five islands, including Debre Sina, Galila, Funduro, Tsedecha and Tulu Gudo, which is home to a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

said to have housed the

Ark of the Covenant The Ark of the Covenant,; Ge'ez: also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, is an alleged artifact believed to be the most sacred relic of the Israelites, which is described as a wooden chest, covered in pure gold, with an e ...

around the ninth century. The early 20th-century explorer

Herbert Weld Blundell Herbert Joseph Weld Blundell (1852 – 5 February 1935) was an English traveller in Africa, archaeologist, philanthropist and yachtsman. He shortened his surname from Weld Blundell to Weld, in 1924. Life to 1922 He was educated at Stonyhurst C ...

describes finding that "two distinct terraces of former shores rise some 80 feet above the present level, forming a ring round that nearest to the lake on the north, about 4 miles from the shore, marking a former basin." The northern shores were covered by

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

. Weld Blundell includes in his account "a curious tradition, perhaps suggested by the apparent elevated shore," that the lake "was a kingdom 50 miles across, inhabited by seventy-eight chiefs", which disappeared in a single night. The lake is known for its population of birds and

hippopotamus The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...

es. It supports a

fishing industry The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including ...

; according to the Ethiopian Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, 2454 tonnes of fish are landed each year, which the department estimates is 83% of its sustainable amount."Information on Fisheries Management in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia"
(report dated January, 2003)

Notes

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Dambal Dambala is a village in the gadag district of the state of Karnataka, India. It was an ancient center of Buddhism and remained so as late as the 12th century. Dambal is at an elevation of . Demographics India census, Dambala had a population ...

Important Bird Areas of Ethiopia