The Tekezé River (; , originally meaning "river" in Ge’ez; , also spelled Takkaze; ), is a major river in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. For part of its course it forms a section of the westernmost border of Ethiopia and

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

. The river is also known as the Setit () as it joins the Nile tributary Atbarah River just over the border in

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

. According to materials published by the Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency, the Tekezé River is long. The

canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

which it has created is the deepest in Africa and one of the deepest in the world, at some points having a depth of over 2000 meters (6,562 feet).

Course

The Tekezé River rises in the central

Ethiopian Highlands The Ethiopian Highlands (also called the Abyssinian Highlands) is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below , whil ...

near Mount Qachen within Lasta, from where it flows west, north, then west again, forming the westernmost border of Ethiopia and Eritrea from the confluence of the Tomsa with the Tekezé at to the tripoint between the two countries and Sudan at . After entering northeastern Sudan at the tripoint it joins the Atbarah River, which is a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

. The Tekezé is perhaps the true upper course of the Atbarah, as the former follows the longer course prior to the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

of the two rivers. The names of its main tributaries in Ethiopia from its source are: on the right bank Tahali, Meri, Tellare, Sullo, Arekwa, Gheoa, Wari, Firafira, Tocoro, and Gumalo Rivers; on the left bank

Nili NILI () was a Jewish espionage network which assisted the United Kingdom in its fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem between 1915 and 1917, during World War I. NILI was centered in Zikhron Ya'akov, with branches ...

, Balagas, Saha, Bembea, Ataba, Zarima, and Kwalema Rivers.

History

The earliest known mention of the Tekezé is in an inscription from

Aksum Axum, also spelled Aksum (), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015). It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire. Axum is located in the Central Zone of the Tigray Regi ...

of king

Ezana of Axum Ezana (, ''‘Ezana'', unvocalized ዐዘነ ''‘zn''), (, ''Aezana'') was the ruler of the Kingdom of Aksum (320s – ). One of the best-documented rulers of Aksum, Ezana is important as he first adopted for his country the religion of Chris ...

, where he boasts of a victory in a battle on its lower banks, near "the ford of Kemalke". The Tekezé served as an early link between Ethiopia and Egypt; for example, the '' Kebra Nagast'', which received its current form in the 13th century, states that king

Menelik I Menelik I ( Ge'ez: ምኒልክ, ''Mənilək'') was the legendary first Emperor of Ethiopia's Solomonic dynasty. According to '' Kebra Nagast'', a 14th-century national epic, in the 10th century BC he is said to have inaugurated the Solomonic d ...

returned to Ethiopia by following this river from Egypt (ch. 53). Augustus B. Wylde records a related tradition that near the source of the Tekezé, at the location of Eyela Kudus Michael church, is the true resting-place of the

Ark of the Covenant The Ark of the Covenant, also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, was a religious storage chest and relic held to be the most sacred object by the Israelites. Religious tradition describes it as a wooden storage chest decorat ...

. Between February and March 1936, 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 waged by Italy against Ethiopia, which lasted from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Ita ...

, thousands of Ethiopian troops were killed when the Italian Royal Air Force ('' Regia Aeronautica'') attacked them with bombs and

mustard gas Mustard gas or sulfur mustard are names commonly used for the organosulfur compound, organosulfur chemical compound bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide, which has the chemical structure S(CH2CH2Cl)2, as well as other Chemical species, species. In the wi ...

as they retreated across the Tekezé. In a successful Ethiopian counter-offensive, the Italians were forced to fall back from the Tekezé to Axum after the battle at Dembeguina Pass. On 1 July 2021, the bridge crossing the Tekezé river was destroyed during the Tigray War. The International Rescue Committee was concerned that the humanitarian aid efforts in the region would be "even more severely hampered than before."

Tekezé dam

The Ethiopian government announced in July 2002 that they had formed a partnership with the China National Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Corporation to construct a hydroelectric dam on the Tekezé, which would generate 300 megawatts of electricity. The project would cost US$224 million and take five years to complete. Oweys Ibrahim, the project coordinator, announced on 12 December 2007 that construction was 82% complete, and included a 105-kilometer power line to Mekele. The Tekeze Hydro Electric project constructed the highest double curve arch dam in Africa, topping the previous highest, in Lesotho. The contractors behind the project were CWGS and it was completed in 2009. The resulting reservoir is 105 km² large and it has a capacity of 9.3 billion m³ of water.ANNYS, Sofie; GHEBREYOHANNES, Tesfaalem; NYSSEN, Jan. Impact of hydropower dam operation and management on downstream hydrogeomorphology in semi-arid environments (Tekeze, Northern Ethiopia). Water, 2020, 12.8: 2237.
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Gallery

File:Tekezze gorge.jpg, Tekezé gorge, a few km downstream from the reservoir File:Takezé Crocodile.jpg, A

crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include ...

along the Tekezé River File:Tekeze-Fluss, Tigray. 20. Jan. 2013-von der Brücke aus.JPG, A crossing at the Tekezé File:Henry Salt - A view of the mountains of Samen & the River Tacazze 1248729.jpg, "A view of the mountains of Samen & the River Tacazze", by Henry Salt and Charles Heath (1814) File:Esterházy-Galántha - Erlegtes Krokodil am Fluss Setit.jpg, Unknown person sitting next to a killed crocodile, 1881 File:Tekeze bridge in between Kafta Humera and Tahtay Adiyabo Woredas in Tigray.jpg, Tekeze bridge, 2017

Notes

External links

Maps of Ethiopia
- Perry–Castañeda Library Map Collection,

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...