Lake Chamo (

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

: ቻሞ ሐይቅ) is a

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

in the

Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region The Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (often abbreviated as SNNPR; ) was a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in southwestern Ethiopia. It was formed from the merger of five ''kililoch'', called Regions 7 to 11, following the ...

of southern

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 ...

. Located in the Main Ethiopian Rift, it is at an elevation of 1,110 meters. The Chamo lake is just to the south of Lake Abaya and the city of Arba Minch, east of the Guge Mountains, and west of the Amaro Mountains.

Overview

Lake Chamo's northern end lies in the Nechisar National Park. According to figures published by the Central Statistical Agency, it is 32 kilometers long and 13 wide, with a surface area of 317 square kilometers and a maximum depth of 14 meters with a catchment of about 18757 square kilometers in size. Other sources locate it on an elevation of 1,235 meters with a length of 26 km a widths of 22 km an area of 551 square kilometers a catchment of 2220 square kilometers and a maximum depth of 10 meters. The lake is fringed with beds of ''

Typha ''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrushStreeter D, Hart-Davies C, Hardcastle A, Cole F, Harper L. 2009. ' ...

'', as well as wetlands. It is fed by the Kulfo River and several small streams, as well as overflow from Lake Abaya brought to it by the Ualo River.Robert Mepham, R. H. Hughes, and J. S. Hughes
''A directory of African wetlands''
(Cambridge: IUCN, UNEP and WCMC, 1992), p. 163 Oscar Neumann, exploring the area in 1901, found a dry channel connecting Lake Chamo to the Sagan River, which led him to conclude the lake contributes to the Sagan in years of heavy rainfall.Oscar Neumann, "From the Somali Coast through Southern Ethiopian to the Sudan", ''Geographical Journal'', 20 (October 1902), pp. 373–398 Wildlife include fish like the catfish '' Bagrus docmak'' and Nile perch, as well as

hippopotamus The hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus amphibius;'' ; : hippopotamuses), often shortened to hippo (: hippos), further qualified as the common hippopotamus, Nile hippopotamus and river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Sahar ...

and

Nile crocodile The Nile crocodile (''Crocodylus niloticus'') is a large crocodilian native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries. It is widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the eastern, southern, and ce ...

Gallery

File:Lake Chamo 03.jpg, On the lake File:Crocodylus niloticus in Lake Chamo 01.jpg,

File:Hippopotamus amphibius in Lake Chamo 05.jpg,

Hippopotamus The hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus amphibius;'' ; : hippopotamuses), often shortened to hippo (: hippos), further qualified as the common hippopotamus, Nile hippopotamus and river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Sahar ...

File:LakeChamoPelicans.jpg, Pelicans

Notes

{{reflist

External links

ILEC Database entry for Lake Chamo
Chamo Chamo Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region

Overview

Gallery

See also

Notes

External links