The Atbarah River ( ar, نهر عطبرة;

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

: Nahr 'Atbarah), also known as the Black Nile, is a river in northeast

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. It rises in northwest

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 ...

, approximately 50 km north 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 ...

and 30 km west of

Gondar Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on t ...

. It then flows about 805 km (500 mi) to 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 riv ...

in north-central

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 ...

, joining it at the city of

Atbarah Atbara (sometimes Atbarah) ( ar, عطبرة ʿAṭbarah) is a city located in River Nile State in northeastern Sudan. Because of its links to the railway industry, Atbara is also known as the "Railway City'. As of 2007, its population is 11 ...

(). The river's

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 drai ...

, the Tekezé (Setit) River, is perhaps the true upper course of the Atbarah, as the Tekezé 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 (at 14° 10' N, 36° E) in northeastern Sudan. The Atbarah is the last tributary of the Nile before it reaches the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

. For much of the year, it is little more than a stream. However, during the rainy season (generally June to October), the Atbarah rises some 18 ft (5 m) above its normal level. At this time it forms a formidable barrier between the northern and central districts of the

Amhara Region The Amhara Region ( am, አማራ ክልል, Åmara Kilil), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people. Its capital is Bahir Dar which is the seat of the Re ...

of Ethiopia. Besides the Tekezé, other important tributaries of the Atbarah include the

Shinfa River The Shinfa is a river of northwestern Ethiopia. It is an important tributary of the Atbarah River. See also *List of rivers of Ethiopia This is a list of streams and rivers in Ethiopia, arranged geographically by drainage basin. There is an al ...

which rises west of Lake Tana, and the Greater Angereb which has its source north of the city of

History

The earliest surviving mention of the Atbarah is by

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called " Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could s ...

(16.4.8), who called the river ''Astaboras'' ( el, Ασταβόρας).Claude Rilly, Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique, Peeters, Louvain 2010, p. 179 Other ancient authors mentioning the name include

Agatharchides Agatharchides or Agatharchus ( grc-gre, Ἀγαθαρχίδης or , ''Agatharchos'') of Cnidus was a Greek historian and geographer (flourished 2nd century BC). Life Agatharchides is believed to have been born at Cnidus, hence his appellation. A ...

, who called it ''Astabaras'' ( el, Ασταβάρας), and

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

(

Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...

4.7).

Richard Pankhurst Richard Marsden Pankhurst (1834 – 5 July 1898) was an English barrister and socialist who was a strong supporter of women's rights. Early life Richard Pankhurst was the son of Henry Francis Pankhurst (1806–1873) and Margaret Marsden (1 ...

and others have argued that the name should be understood as "River of the Boras people", where ''asta'' can be related to Proto-

Nubian Nubian may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Nubia, a region along the Nile river in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan. *Nubian people *Nubian languages *Anglo-Nubian goat, a breed of goat * Nubian ibex * , several ships of the Britis ...

''asti'' "water", while ''-boras'' can be linked to a number of Roman allusions to a tribe named the Bora (Bera), who lived near Meroe, and another tribe named the ''Megabares'' ( el, Μεγάβαροι in Eratosthenes and Strabo, la, Megabarri in

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

provides a slightly different etymology of Astaboras, stating that "in the language of the local people" the name means "water coming from the shades below" ('' N.H.'' 5.10). In April 1898 a major

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and for ...

was fought beside the river during the

Anglo-Egyptian invasion of Sudan 1896–1899 The Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan in 1896–1899 was a reconquest of territory lost by the Khedives of Egypt in 1884 and 1885 during the Mahdist War. The British had failed to organise an orderly withdrawal of Egyptian forces from Sudan, and t ...

between Mahdist forces and an Anglo-Egyptian Army under the command of Lord Kitchener, which resulted in the destruction of the 20,000-strong Mahdist detachment. In 1964, the river was dammed by the Khashm el-Girba Dam 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 ...

in Sudan to provide irrigation up to the newly built town of Halfa Dughaym in an otherwise fairly arid region and to resettle the Sudanese population driven away by the

Aswan High Dam The Aswan Dam, or more specifically since the 1960s, the Aswan High Dam, is one of the world's largest embankment dams, which was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. Its significance largely eclipsed the previous Aswan Lo ...

(Sad al-Aali) in Egypt, which flooded 500 km of the Nile Valley in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Construction on a $1.9 billion twin dam project about 20 km upstream from the confluence of the Upper Atbara and Setit rivers, the Rumela and Burdana dams, began in 2011 and was inaugurated by President Omar al-Bashir in February 2017.

Hydrology

Average monthly flow (1912–1982) of the Atbarah measured approximately 25 km upstream of its mouth, measured in m³/s: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.8) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.3) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) id:barra value:rgb(0.6,0.8,0.9) ImageSize = width:600 height:220 PlotArea = left:40 bottom:40 top:20 right:20 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:2010 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:500 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:250 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo BarData= bar:Jan text:Jan. bar:Feb text:Feb. bar:Mar text:March bar:Apr text:April bar:May text:May bar:Jun text:June bar:Jul text:July bar:Aug text:August bar:Sep text:Sept. bar:Oct text:Oct. bar:Nov text:Nov. bar:Dec text:Dec. PlotData= color:barra width:30 align:left bar:Jan from:0 till: 7.5 bar:Feb from:0 till: 2.9 bar:Mar from:0 till: 0.3 bar:Apr from:0 till: 1.4 bar:May from:0 till: 2.9 bar:Jun from:0 till: 28.4 bar:Jul from:0 till: 569.5 bar:Aug from:0 till: 2002.7 bar:Sep from:0 till: 1291.0 bar:Oct from:0 till: 289.1 bar:Nov from:0 till: 61.1 bar:Dec from:0 till: 19.0 PlotData= bar:Jan at: 7.5 fontsize:S text: 7.5 shift:(-10,5) bar:Feb at: 2.9 fontsize:S text: 2.9 shift:(-10,5) bar:Mar at: 0.3 fontsize:S text: 0.3 shift:(-10,5) bar:Apr at: 1.4 fontsize:S text: 1.4 shift:(-10,5) bar:May at: 2.9 fontsize:S text: 2.9 shift:(-10,5) bar:Jun at: 28.4 fontsize:S text: 28.4 shift:(-10,5) bar:Jul at: 569.5 fontsize:S text: 569.5 shift:(-10,5) bar:Aug at: 2002.7 fontsize:S text: 2002.7 shift:(-10,5) bar:Sep at: 1291.0 fontsize:S text: 1291.0 shift:(-10,5) bar:Oct at: 289.1 fontsize:S text: 289.1 shift:(-10,5) bar:Nov at: 61.1 fontsize:S text: 61.1 shift:(-10,5) bar:Dec at: 19.0 fontsize:S text: 19.0 shift:(-10,5)

References

External links

Maps of Ethiopia
- Perry–Castañeda Library Map Collection,

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{{Authority control International rivers of Africa Rivers of Ethiopia Rivers of Sudan Nile basin Tributaries of the Nile Articles which contain graphical timelines