Dembiya ( Amharic: ደምቢያ ''Dembīyā''; also transliterated Dembea, Dambya, Dembya, Dambiya, etc.) is a historic region of

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 ...

, intimately linked with Lake Tana. According to the account of Manuel de Almeida, Dembiya was "bounded on East by Begemder, on South by Gojjam, on West by Agaws of Achefer and Tangha. Lake Tsana, formerly called Dambaya, is in this region."The region included the current woredas of Dembiya, Gondar zuriya, Libo Kemkem, Fogera, Dera. Takusa and Alefa. Dembiya encircled more than 89% of lake Tana (previously called lake Dembiya). The region was governed by Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi and also served well as his personal residence and seat of government during the Ethiopian-Adal War. The rest of the province was divided among the Adalite soldiers while the native Amhara population served as peasant farmers. Alexander Murray, in his preface to the third volume of Bruce's account, further describes it as "on the east it includes Foggora, Dara, and Alata; on the north-east Gondar, the metropolis, and the rich district beneath it; on the southwest, the district of Bed (the plain barren country) and, on the west, the lands around Waindaga and Dingleber."''Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile'', (1805 edition), vol. 3 p. 9 Dembiya was incorporated into the Begemder province (which previously only included lands to the east of Lake Tana) during the reign of Emperor

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I (born Tafari Makonnen or ''Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles#Lij, Lij'' Tafari; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles, Rege ...

, and in 1996 became a

woreda Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas (; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''List of zones of Ethiopia, zones'' and the ''Regions of Ethiopia, regional states''. These districts are f ...

of the Amhara Region.

References

Historical geography of Ethiopia History of the Amhara Region North Gondar Zone Lake Tana {{Ethiopia-hist-stub