The Bilate is a river of south-central Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. It rises on the southwestern slopes of Mount Gurage

Mount Gurage

Mount Gurage, located in central Ethiopia, is the highest point of not only the Gurage Zone but the entire Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region. It has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 3719 meters above sea level....

 near 6°2′N 38°7′E, flowing south along the western side of the Great Rift Valley

Great Rift Valley

The Great Rift Valley is a name given in the late 19th century by British explorer John Walter Gregory to the continuous geographic trench, approximately in length, that runs from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in South East Africa...

, to empty into Lake Abaya

Lake Abaya

Lake Abaya is a lake in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region of Ethiopia. It was named Lake Margherita by the Italian explorer Vittorio Bottego, the first European commonly thought to visit the lake, to honor the wife of king Umberto I of Italy, Queen Margherita...

 at 6°37′54"N 37°59′6"E. David Buxton recorded its importance as defining the boundary between the Sidamo district on the eastern side, and the Wolaita district on the western; he also describes finding a weekly market beside a ford named Dinto.

This river is not navigable and it has no notable tributaries. Along the middle of its course the Bilate flows past the Bilate River volcanic field.