Mitraha Island ( ) is located in the northeastern part of
Lake Tana
Lake Tana ( am, ጣና ሐይቅ, T’ana ḥāyik’i; previously Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately long and wid ...
in
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 ...
, about a mile from the lake's shore. It has a latitude and longitude of . The island contains the ruins of a number of
churches.
History
The first church built on the island, by the Ethiopian Emperor
Dawit I
Dawit I ( gez, ዳዊት) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1382 to 6 October 1413, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the younger son of Newaya Krestos.
Reign
Taddesse Tamrat discusses a tradition that early in his reign, Dawit campaigne ...
, was torched by Imam
Ahmad Gragn
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi ( so, Axmed Ibraahim al-Qaasi or Axmed Gurey, Harari: አሕመድ ኢብራሂም አል-ጋዚ, ar, أحمد بن إبراهيم الغازي ; 1506 – 21 February 1543) was an imam and general of the Adal Sultana ...
. Later structures include a big masonry church constructed by the Ethiopian Emperor
Yohannes I
Yohannes I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ዮሐንስ), also known as Yohannes the Righteous (Ge'ez: ጻድቁ ዮሐንስ), throne name A'ilaf Sagad (Ge'ez: አእላፍ ሰገድ; 1640 – 19 July 1682) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1667 to 1682, and a ...
and the mausoleum of the Emperor
Iyasu I
Iyasu I ( Ge'ez: ኢያሱ ፩; 1654 – 13 October 1706), throne name Adyam Sagad (Ge'ez: አድያም ሰገድ), also known as Iyasu the Great, was Emperor of Ethiopia from 19 July 1682 until his death in 1706, and a member of the Solomonic ...
. These edifices were also burned in 1887 by Dervish raiders.
When Arthur J. Hayes visited Mitraha 14 January 1904, he found it "a perfectly pretty islet, with quaint thatched cottages among foliage and a ruinous old church" -- the one Iyasu I was entombed in. Although the inhabitants food sources were limited to poultry and "
durrha when we can get it", they had stopped fishing the lake since the death of Emperor Yohannes I; Hayes speculates this out of superstition. Hayes continues, "The island is traversed in all directions by narrow tracked marked by trodden leaves, and there is a thick undergrowth of weeds, thistles, and thorns." He was much intrigued by a spider "about the size of a shilling, with a speckled abdomen and legs of enormous length" which appeared to be found only on Mitraha.
[Hayes, ''The Source of the Blue Nile'' (London, 1905), pp. 95-95]
References
{{Amhara-geo-stub
Amhara Region
Islands of Lake Tana
Burial sites of the Solomonic dynasty