Lake Abaya
Encyclopedia
- For the Muslim garment, see AbayaAbayaThe abaya "cloak" , sometimes also called an aba, is a simple, loose over-garment, essentially a robe-like dress, worn by some women in parts of the Islamic world including in Turkey, North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula....
.
Lake Abaya (Abaya Hayk in Amharic) is a lake in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region of 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 was named Lake Margherita by the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
explorer Vittorio Bottego
Vittorio Bottego
Vittorio Bottego was an Italian army officer and one of the first Western explorers of Jubaland in the Horn of Africa , where he led two expeditions. Bottego was born in Parma....
, the first European commonly thought to visit the lake, to honor the wife of king Umberto I
Umberto I of Italy
Umberto I or Humbert I , nicknamed the Good , was the King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his death. He was deeply loathed in far-left circles, especially among anarchists, because of his conservatism and support of the Bava-Beccaris massacre in Milan...
of Italy, Queen Margherita
Margherita of Savoy
Margherita of Savoy , was the Queen consort of the Kingdom of Italy during the reign of her husband, Umberto I.-Family:...
. This name appears in older publications, and currently is rarely used.
However, the American explorer Arthur Donaldson Smith
Arthur Donaldson Smith
Dr. Arthur Donaldson Smith was an American explorer of Africa. In the 1890s he made a geological expedition to Lake Rudolph , passing through what was then Somaliland, southern Ethiopia and Kenya.-External links:*...
records that the local inhabitants, who included an eye witness of the event, told him that the Italian explorer Eugene Ruspoli (died 1891) was killed by an elephant near the lake, which happened before Bottego reached Lake Abaya.
Lake Abaya is located in 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...
, east of the Guge Mountains. It is fed on its northern shore by the Bilate
Bilate River
The Bilate is a river of south-central Ethiopia. It rises on the southwestern slopes of Mount Gurage near , flowing south along the western side of the Great Rift Valley, to empty into Lake Abaya at...
which rises on the southern 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....
, and the Gidabo. The town of Arba Minch
Arba Minch
Arba Minch is a city in southern Ethiopia; less common names for this city include Ganta Garo and Minghi. Located in the Gamo Gofa Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region about 500 kilometers south of Addis Ababa, at an elevation of 1285 meters above sea level...
lies on its southwestern shore, and the southern shores are part of the Nechisar National Park
Nechisar National Park
Nechisar National Park is one of the National Parks of Ethiopia. Located in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region immediately to the east of Arba Minch, its 514 square kilometers of territory include the "Bridge of God" , and the Nechisar plains east of the lakes...
. Just to the south is Lake Chamo
Lake Chamo
Lake Chamo is a lake in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region of southern Ethiopia. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at an elevation of 1,110 meters. It is just to the south of Lake Abaya and the city of Arba Minch, and east of the Guge Mountains.The lake's northern end...
. Lake Abaya is 60 kilometers long and 20 wide, with a surface area of 1162 square kilometers. It has a maximum depth of 13.1 meters and is at an elevation of 1285 meters. There are a number of islands in this lake, the largest being Aruro
Aruro Island
Aruro is the biggest island in Lake Abaya, which is in Ethiopia. The island has a latitude and longitude of . Aruro is administratively part of Boreda Abaya, a woreda of the Gamo Gofa Zone....
; others include Gidicho, Welege, Galmaka, and Alkali. The lake is red due to a high load of suspended sediments. Lake Abaya does not always have an outflow, but in some years it overflows into Lake Chamo.
Savanna
Savanna
A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of C4 grasses.Some...
, known for its wildlife
Wildlife
Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
and birdlife surrounds the lake, which is also fished by local people. According to the Ethiopian Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, 412 tonne
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
s of fish are landed each year, which the department estimates is 69% of its sustainable amount.