The Bashilo River (less often known as the Beshitta) is located in

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 Er ...

. Known for its canyon, which one source describes as almost as extensive as the canyon of its parent the Abay, also known as the

Blue Nile The Blue Nile (; ) is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It travels for approximately through Ethiopia and Sudan. Along with the White Nile, it is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the water ...

, the river originates just west of Kutaber in 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 R ...

, flowing first to the northwest to where the Tergiya empties into it, then to the southwest to its confluence with the Abay. Its drainage area is about 13,242 square kilometers in size, covering portions of the Semien Gondar,

Semien Wollo North Wollo (Amharic: ሰሜን ወሎ) also called Semien Wollo, is a zone in Amhara Region of Ethiopia. It is bordered on the south by South Wollo, on the west by South Gondar, on the north by Wag Hemra, on the northeast by Tigray Regio ...

and

Debub Wollo Zone South Wollo ( Amharic: ደቡብ ወሎ) is a zone in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. It acquired its name from the former province of Wollo. South Wollo is bordered on the south by North Shewa and the Oromia Region, on the west by East Gojjam, ...

s. Its tributaries include the Checheho, and the Walano. Beshlo River

The Bashilo was also important for defining the boundaries of Ethiopian provinces. In the 17th century, it separated

Begemder Begemder ( amh, በጌምድር; also known as Gondar or Gonder, alternative name borrowed from its 20th century capital Gondar) was a province in northwest Ethiopia. Etymology A plausible source for the name ''Bega'' is that the word means " ...

from Amhara. By the late 18th century, it had become the northern boundary of

Shewa Shewa ( am, ሸዋ; , om, Shawaa), formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa (''Scioà'' in Italian), is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian capital Add ...

, as illustrated by the refusal of Emperor

Tekle Giyorgis I Tekle Giyorgis I ( gez, ተክለ ጊዮርጊስ; c. 1751 – 12 December 1817), throne name Feqr Sagad, was Emperor of Ethiopia intermittently between 20 July 1779 and June 1800, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the youngest son of ...

to cross the Bashilo because they would enter that province. The river remained the northern boundary of Shewa as late as 1870 by

Negus Negus (Negeuce, Negoose) ( gez, ንጉሥ, ' ; cf. ti, ነጋሲ ' ) is a title in the Ethiopian Semitic languages. It denotes a monarch,

Menelik Menelek or Menelik may refer to: * Menelik I, first Emperor of Ethiopia * Menelik II (1844–1913), Emperor of Ethiopia *Menelek XIV, fictional Emperor of Abyssinia in the novel ''Beyond Thirty'' by Edgar Rice Burroughs *Ménélik (born 1970), Fren ...

of Shewa in a letter to G.R. Goodfellow.Dated 3 July 1870. Text and translation in Sven Rubenson, ''Acta Aethiopica, vol 3: Internal Rivalries and Foreign Threats, 1869-1879'' (Addis Ababa: University Press, 2000), pp. 60f.

References

External links

Ethiopia Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency: Administrative atlas: Amhara region

Ethiopia Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency: Flood Vulnerable Areas as of August 24, 2006
Amhara Region Rivers of Ethiopia Tributaries of the Blue Nile {{Ethiopia-river-stub

See also

References

External links