JourneyEtc

Bahar Dar, the next stop, is 578 kilometres from Addis Ababa, has two daily Ethiopian Airlines flights and a number of good hotels, and it located on the southern shores of Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, with its ancient island nonasteries and both the Blue and the white Nile’s most spectacular feature, the Tis Isat falls.On the island of Dega Estefanos you will find the church of saint Stefanos, which has a priceless collection of icons and manuscripts and houses the mummified remains of a number of Ethiopian emperors. For the modern traveler, the starting point of any visit to the Blue Nile Falls, or to the islands of Lake Tana, is the busting market town of Bahar Dar on the lake’s south-eastern shore. The colourful markets and a variety of handicrafts and weaving centres also make it a comfortable has for excursion by land or water. Bahar Dar port provides access by boat to a number of historic lakeside churches or monasteries near and far. Most date from the 17th-century and have beautifully painted walls. Many such places of worship now have fascinating museums, at which the visitor can see priceless. Illustrated manuscripts, historic crowns and fine royal. And ecclesiastical robes. Some monastic islands are forbidden to women, but others can be visited by all.Visitors to Bahar Dar can also see tankwas, locally made out of the papyrus reeds growing by the lake shore, as well as an historic old building erected, in St. Georges church compound, by the 17th-century Spanish Jesuit, pero paes.