The Reb (also transliterated as Rib;
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 ...
"bottom, buttocks") is a river of north-central
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 ...
which empties into
Lake Tana
Lake Tana (; previously transcribed Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and a source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately long and wide, with a maximum depth of , and ...
in a small delta. The river originates on the slopes of
Mount Guna, and flows west through
Kemekem 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 ...
. It has no significant tributaries.
Background
R.E. Cheesman described the Reb in 1936 as bringing "down quantities of dark sand, and we passed banks of it deposited on the lake shore. The river bar, 600 yards out in the lake, is a semicircle, and parties of travellers with loaded donkeys were passing round it instead of crossing the river." Merchants based in
Yifag would transport bars of
salt
In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...
or ''
amoleh'' in small boats or ''tankwas'' down the Reb to
Zege on the lake to trade for
coffee
Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
.
The Reb was also the site of one of several stone bridges built during the time of the
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
missionaries or the reign of
Fasilides. The river consisting of five arches, it was located from the estuary and enabled travel between
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 ...
and
Debre Tabor. The five arches bridge]was built by the Italian Government in 1939. It was designed by my father Ottavio Zappa. I have in my possession the original photograph of the bridge that is now posted at the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Osvaldo Zappa p. During the
Italian East Africa, Italian occupation, the Italians built a stone bridge over the river and was not a wooden one as is claimed and was not damaged during the British campaign. Osvaldo Zappa
On 21 June 2007, the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
announced that it had approved an International Development Association credit of US$100 million for an Irrigation and Drainage project covering the
Magech and Reb rivers, as part of the
Nile Basin Initiative. With the goal of increasing irrigated agricultural output, this proposed project will develop incrementally a total area of 20,000 hectares.
"Ethiopia Receives Assistance for Irrigation and Drainage Project"
World Bank website (accessed 14 October 2010)
See also
* List of Ethiopian rivers
Notes
Amhara Region
Tributaries of Lake Tana
Rivers of Ethiopia
{{Ethiopia-river-stub