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

. 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: 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 the longest ...

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''; ...

coast, and as far south (and west) as Shire and the capital was at Debarwa in modern Eritrea, about south of Asmara.

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 ...

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