The Gibe River (also Great Gibe River) is by far the largest tributary of the

Omo River The Omo River (also called Omo-Bottego) in southern Ethiopia is the largest Ethiopian river outside the Nile, Nile Basin. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia, and it empties into Lake Turkana on the border with Keny ...

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 ...

and typically flowing south-southeast. The confluence of the large Gibe River at with the smaller

Wabe River Wabe River (also Wabi River, Uabi River) is a west-southwest flowing river of south-central Ethiopia, entirely confined within the reaches of Gurage Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region. This river is a perennial river. ...

forms the even larger Omo River. Consequently, the whole

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

is sometimes called the ''Omo-Gibe River Basin'' with the Gibe and the Omo draining the upper and lower reaches, respectively. Located in southwest

, the Gibe River is not navigable, like almost all rivers in the country.

Overview

The Gibe rises at an elevation of more than 2,000 m north of Bila town and west of the Chomen swamp (specifically, from

Gudeya Bila Gudeya Bila is one of the woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. It is part of the East Welega Zone and it was part of former Bila Seyo woreda. It is bounded by Abe Dongoro in the north, Gobu Seyo in the south, Horo Gudru Welega Zone in the east ...

woreda Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas ( am, ወረዳ; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''zones'' and the '' regional states''. These districts are further subdivided into a number of ...

, which is located in the

East Welega Zone East Welega ( om, Wallagga Bahaa) is one of the zones in the central Oromia Region of Ethiopia. This administrative division acquired its name from the former province of Welega. Towns and cities in this zone include Nekemte. East Welega is bound ...

Oromia Region Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa. It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Benis ...

). The river is then flowing generally to the southeast to its confluence with the Wabe River. Its tributaries include the Amara, Alanga and Gilgel Gibe rivers. The southern drainage area of the Gibe includes the historic

Gibe region The Gibe region (Amharic: ጊቤ) was a historic region in modern southwestern Ethiopia, to the west of the Gibe and Omo Rivers, and north of the Gojeb. It was the location of the former Oromo and Sidama kingdoms of Gera, Gomma, Garo, Gumma, ...

, where a number of the former kingdoms of the Oromo and

Sidama The Sidama ( am, ሲዳማ) are an ethnic group traditionally inhabiting the Sidama Region, formerly part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. On 23 November 2019, the Sidama Zone became the 10th regional st ...

peoples were located. The Gibe River terminates at the confluence with the Wabe River at an elevation of 1060 m from where the resulting river downstream is called the Omo River. Although its banks and watershed have been inhabited since time immemorial, it is first mentioned in the ''Royal Chronicle'' of Emperor

Sarsa Dengel Sarsa Dengel ( gez, ሠርጸ ድንግል ; 1550 – 4 October 1597), also known as Sarsa the Great, was Emperor of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. His throne name was throne name Malak Sagad I (መለክ ሰገድ ). Biograp ...

, who campaigned to the north of it in 1566. The first European to see the Gibe was the Portuguese António Fernandes, who crossed the Gibe in 1613 as he left

Ennarea Ennarea, also known as E(n)narya or In(n)arya ( Gonga: Hinnario), was a kingdom in the Gibe region in what is now western Ethiopia. It became independent from the kingdom of Damot in the 14th century and would be the most powerful kingdom in th ...

and entered Janjero, and later described it as carrying "more Water than the Nile". No other European visited the Gibe until the 19th century, so his account remained the authoritative account over the next centuries and preferred to information obtained from native travellers.As Charles Johnston laments in his work, ''Travels in Southern Abyssinia through the Country of Adal to the Kingdom of Shoa (London, 1844), vol. 2 pp. 113-125

References

Rivers of Ethiopia Omo River (Ethiopia) {{Ethiopia-river-stub