The Mareb River, or Gash River ( ar, القاش) is a river flowing out of central

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

. Its chief importance is defining part of the boundary between Eritrea and

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 ...

, between the point where the Mai Ambassa enters the river at to the confluence of the Balasa with the Mareb at .

Course

According to the ''Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68'', the Mereb River is long. The Ethiopian

Ministry of Water Resources Ministry of water resources may refer to: * Ministry of Water Resources (Bangladesh) * Ministry of Water Resources (India) * Ministry of Water Resources (Iraq) * Minister of Water Resources (Nigeria) * Ministry of Water Resources (Pakistan) * Minis ...

reports its Ethiopian catchment area as , with an annual runoff of 0.26 billion cubic meters. Other sources talking about a catchment of to over all, and a discharge of in average over the year, and in peaks. Its headwaters rise south-west of Asmara in central Eritrea. It flows south, bordering Ethiopia, then west through western Eritrea to reach the

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

ese plains near

Kassala Kassala ( ar, كسلا) is the capital of the state of Kassala in eastern Sudan. Its 2008 population was recorded to be 419,030. Built on the banks of the Gash River, it is a market town and is famous for its fruit gardens. Many of its inhabita ...

. Unlike the Setit or Takazze rivers, which flow out of Ethiopia and also forms a natural border with Eritrea, the waters of the Mareb do usually not reach the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...

but dissipate in the sands of the eastern Sudanese plains. The Mareb is dry for much of the year, but like the Takazze is subject to sudden floods during the rainy season; only the left bank of the upper course of the Mareb is in Ethiopian territory. Its main tributaries are the

Obel River The Obel River (or Ubel River) is a right tributary of the Mareb (Gash) river. Лист карты D-37-IX. Масштаб: 1 : 200 000. Издание 1978 г. The latter watercourse forms part of the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia, with its ...

on the right bank (in Eritrea) and the Sarana, Balasa, Mai Shawesh, and 'Engweya Rivers on the left (in Ethiopia).

History

The Mareb was important historically as the boundary between two separately governed regions in the area: the land of the '' Bahr negash'' (

Tigrinya (; also spelled Tigrigna) is an Ethio-Semitic language commonly spoken Eritrea and in northern Ethiopia's Tigray Region by the Tigrinya and Tigrayan peoples. It is also spoken by the global diaspora of these regions. History and literatur ...

"kingdom of the sea", also known as

Medri Bahri Medri Bahri ( ti, ምድሪ ባሕሪ, English: Land of the Sea Kingdom), also known as Mereb Melash, was an Eritrean kingdom emerged in 1137 until conquest by the Ethiopian Empire in 1879. It was situated in modern-day Eritrea, and was ruled by ...

or "land of/by the sea") to the north of the river, and the Tigray to the south. The territories under the ''Bahr negash'' extended as far north as the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

coast, and as far south (and west) as

Shire Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the beginn ...

and the capital was at

Debarwa Debarwa ( ) is a market town in central Eritrea. It is situated about 25 kilometers south of the capital Asmara, and has a population of about 25,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Debarwa district (''Tsilima'') in the Debub ("Southern") ad ...

in modern Eritrea, about south of

Asmara Asmara ( ), or Asmera, is the capital and most populous city of Eritrea, in the country's Central Region. It sits at an elevation of , making it the sixth highest capital in the world by altitude and the second highest capital in Africa. The ...

Wildlife

The river's Eritrean floodplain was the location of a 2001 sighting of a sizable

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

herd, the first such sighting in Eritrea since 1955.BBC Wildlife magazine, July 2003, retrieved a

on 28 Sept 2007

References

{{coord, 14, 26, N, 38, 33, E, display=title Rivers of Eritrea Rivers of Ethiopia Rivers of Sudan International rivers of Africa Eritrea–Ethiopia border Border rivers

Course

History

Wildlife

See also

References