The Tekezé or Täkkäze River ( amh, ተከዜ, ti, ተከዘ; originally meaning "river" in Ge’ez, ), also spelled Takkaze, is a major river of
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 ...
. For part of its course it forms a section of the westernmost border of Ethiopia and
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 ...
. The river is also known as the Setit () in Eritrea, western Ethiopia, and eastern
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 ...
. According to materials published by the Ethiopian
Central Statistical Agency
The Central Statistical Agency (CSA; Amharic: ማዕከላዊ ስታቲስቲክስ ኤጀንሲ) is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growt ...
, the Tekezé River is long. The
canyon
A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...
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 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 , while the summits reach heights of up to . ...
near
Mount Qachen within
Lasta
Lasta (Amharic: ላስታ ''lāstā'') is a historic district in northern Ethiopia. It is the district in which Lalibela is situated, the former capital of Ethiopia during the Zagwe dynasty and home to 11 medieval rock-hewn churches. Its original ...
, 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
The Atbarah River ( ar, نهر عطبرة; transliterated: Nahr 'Atbarah), also known as the Black Nile, is a river in northeast Africa. It rises in northwest Ethiopia, approximately 50 km north of Lake Tana and 30 km west of Gondar. ...
, which is a
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or 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 drain the surrounding drainage ...
of 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 ...
. 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 flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...
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 Palestine between 1915 and 1917, during World War I. NILI is an acronym which stands for the Hebrew phrase "Netzah Yisrael Lo Yesha ...
,
Balagas, Saha, Bembea,
Ataba,
Zarima, and Kwalema Rivers.
History
The earliest known mention of the Tekezé is in an inscription from
Aksum
Axum, or Aksum (pronounced: ), 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, a naval and trading power that ruled the whole region ...
of king
Ezana of Axum
Ezana ( gez, ዔዛና ''‘Ezana'', unvocalized ዐዘነ ''‘zn''; also spelled Aezana or Aizan) was ruler of the Kingdom of Axum, an ancient kingdom located in what is now Eritrea and Ethiopia. (320s – c. 360 AD). He himself employed the ...
, 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
The Kebra Nagast, var. Kebra Negast ( gez, ክብረ ነገሥት, ), or The Glory of the Kings, is a 14th-century national epic from Ethiopia, written in Ge'ez by Nebure Id Ishaq of Axum, by the office of Abuna Abba Giyorgis and at the comma ...
'', which received its current form in the 13th century, states that king
Menelik I
Menelik I ( Ge'ez: ምኒልክ) was the claimed first Emperor of Ethiopia. According to Kebra Nagast, a 14th-century national epic, in the 10th century BC he is said to have inaugurated the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia, so named because Meneli ...
returned to Ethiopia by following this river from Egypt (ch. 53).
Augustus B. Wylde
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
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,; 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 ...
.
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 which was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Itali ...
, thousands of Ethiopian troops were killed when the Italian Royal Air Force (''
Regia Aeronautica
The Italian Royal Air Force (''Regia Aeronautica Italiana'') was the name of the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as a service independent of the Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946. In 1946, the monarchy was abolis ...
'') attacked them with bombs and
mustard gas
Mustard gas or sulfur mustard is a chemical compound belonging to a family of cytotoxic and blister agents known as mustard agents. The name ''mustard gas'' is technically incorrect: the substance, when dispersed, is often not actually a gas, b ...
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 Tigray War; ; . was an armed conflict that lasted from 3 November 2020 to 3 November 2022. The war was primarily fought in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia between the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrea on one side, and the Tigray Peop ...
by retreating TPLF rebel groups. The International Rescue Committee was concerned that the humanitarian aid efforts in the region would be "even more severely hampered than before." Recently WFP aid warehouses were looted by TPLF compounding the problem.
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
Mekelle ( ti, መቐለ, am, መቀሌ, mäqälle, mek’elē) or Mekele is a special zone and capital of the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Mekelle was formerly the capital of Enderta awraja in Tigray. It is located around north of the Ethiopi ...
.
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 km
2 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.
/ref>
See also
* List of rivers of Eritrea
This is a list of streams and rivers in Eritrea, arranged geographically by drainage basin. Generally, rivers in Eritrea are divided into three groups: those that drain into Sudan, towards the Red Sea and towards the Afar Depression. There ...
* List of rivers of Ethiopia
This is a list of streams and rivers in Ethiopia, arranged geographically by drainage basin. There is an alphabetic list at the end of this article.
Flowing into the Mediterranean
*''Nile (Egypt, Sudan)''
Atbarah River
*Mareb River (or ...
* List of rivers of Sudan
This is a list of streams and rivers in Sudan, arranged geographically by drainage basin. There is an alphabetic list at the end of this article.
Flowing into the Mediterranean
*Nile
**Atbarah River
***Mareb River (or Gash River) (only reaches ...
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 research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tekeze River
International rivers of Africa
Atbarah River
Rivers of Eritrea
Rivers of Ethiopia
Rivers of Sudan
Ethiopian Highlands
Eritrea–Ethiopia border
Border rivers