Why should the river that tumbles out of the Ethiopian highlands and joins the White Nile at Khartoum be called the Blue Nile? It is not particularly blue. Perhaps it should be called the Summer River, because for most of the year it provides little water compared to the White Nile, but in Summer it is very much the dominant tributary. In the summer, winds from the SE bring moist air from the Indian Ocean. This is forced to rise over the Ethiopian Plateau, half of which is over 2 km high; the highest point in Ethiopia - Ras Dejen - is about 4.5 km high. The moist air cools as it rises, and this wrings out the moisture in torrents known as monsoon. Monsoon rains wash the Ethiopian highlands in summer, filling every dry wash that drains down to the Blue Nile. The river itself swells so with water that at the confluence with the White Nile it causes its more sedate partner to dam back on itself. It is this annual flooding of the Blue Nile along with that of the Atbara to the north, which also flows out of the Ethiopian highlands, that caused the Nile to rise each year in Egypt. It is erosion of the basalt lavas of the Ethiopian highlands that allows the river each year to bring a fresh varnish of black mud to its floodplain.

Maybe it should be called the Canyon Nile, because over half of its 800 km course from Lake Tana to Khartoum is through an impenetrable gorge. The canyon over much of its length is over 1500 m deep, just as deep as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in Arizona, U.S.A. Like the Grand Canyon, the Blue Nile Gorge exposes layers of rock laid down over hundreds of millions of years of earth history, with 150 million year old sandstones and limestones sandwiched between 800 million year old granites below and 20 million year old lava flows at the top. In spite of these similarities, the Blue Nile gorge is the more intimidating feature. Within 30 km of its source at Lake Tana the river enters a canyon which it does not leave for 400 km. This gorge is a tremendous obstacle for travel and communication from the north half of Ethiopia to the southern half. There is another difference between the two rivers: many people enjoy the raft ride down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon, but no one has ever floated down the Blue Nile and lived to brag about it.

Another possible name would be the Lost Nile. The traditional source of the Blue Nile is a spring which feeds the Little Abbai, a stream which flows NE into Lake Tana. Lake Tana itself lies at an elevation of a little over 1800 m and was formed when a young lava flow blocked the river, flooding a shallow depression. The river has cut through this barrier, flowing to the SE. As the river cuts deeper into its gorge, it slowly turns south, then SW, then W. Finally, as it leaves the great canyon, it turns to NNW to meet with its sister stream at Khartoum. The course of the stream thus turns 270 degrees from start to finish.

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In Arabic the Blue Nile is called 'Al Bahr al-Azraq' while the Ethiopians call it the 'Abbai'. The numerous names given to the river reflect the river's complex history involving the river, the people who make their livelihood from it, and those who were determined to rule it.

It would be impossible to tell the history of all of the people and tribes that have lived along the Nile in the space of this small site, and readers are encouraged to look for books with a more detailed account. A bit of history from the headwaters in Ethiopia and the Nile cities in Sudan follow.

One very notable event for the people who lived along the Nile, both the Blue and White, is the invasion and conquest of the area by a somewhat mysterious group of warriors in the 1600's. Sennar, Sudan was chosen as the capital and the kingdom they established was called the Fung Empire. It stretched from the Red Sea to beyond the barrier of the White Nile. This kingdom collapsed in 1821 to an invasion of a Turkish army from Egypt. The new rulers established a capital at the place where the Blue and White Niles join in Sudan: El Kartoum. El Kartoum means elephantÕs trunk, an appropriate description of the shape of the river at the point. Time went on and conquerors came and went but the city of Kartoum survived in one form or another.

The first European to see the Blue Nile in Ethiopia is reported to be a Portuguese priest in the early 1600's. It took almost another 360 years before the gorge of the Nile was completely mapped by the West. The priest had a hard time trying to spread his teachings in Ethiopia. The country is home to many different religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. The Christians of Ethiopia, however, are mainly Coptic Christians, a branch that originated in Egypt. Lake Tana, Ethiopia's largest lake very near the origin of the Blue Nile, is dotted with a wide mix of churches from many different centuries even including a Roman Catholic church built by the Portuguese priest in 1621. The numerous churches have long been used to store important artworks and relics because of the Lake's remote location. In fact, the Arc of the Covenant is rumored to be or have been stored on one of the 37 islands in the lake making Lake Tana one among the many locations the holy relic is thought to be stored.