Reb River (also transliterated as Rib;
Amharic
Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...
"bottom, buttocks") is a river of north-central
Ethiopia which empties into
Lake Tana
Lake Tana ( am, ጣና ሐይቅ, T’ana ḥāyik’i; previously Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately long and wid ...
at . The river originates on the slopes of
Mount Guna, and flows west through
Kemekem Kemekem (also known as Libo Kemekem (Amharic: ሊቦ ከምከም) is one of the woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Debub Gondar Zone, Kemekem is bordered on the south by the Reb
which separates it from Fogera, on the west by Lak ...
woreda. It has no significant tributaries.
Background
R.E. Cheesman
Major Robert Ernest Cheesman CBE (1878, Ashford, Kent – 13 February 1962) was an English military officer, explorer, ornithologist and author. He is noted for being one of the first to map the Arabian coast and credited with the discovery of a ...
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 or ''
amoleh'' in small boats or ''tankwas'' down the Reb to
Zege on the lake to trade for
coffee.
The Reb was also the site of one of several stone bridges built during the time of the
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
missionaries or the reign of
Fasilides. The river consisting of five arches, it was located from the estuary and enabled travel between
Gondar 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 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