Mereb River
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "redirect hatnote". Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
The Mareb River (Template:Langx), also known as the Gash River (Template:Langx), is a river flowing out of central Eritrea. Its chief importance is defining part of the boundary between Eritrea and Ethiopia, between the point where the Mai Ambassa enters the river at Script error: No such module "Coordinates". to the confluence of the Balasa with the Mareb at Script error: No such module "Coordinates"..[1]
Course
According to the Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68, the Mereb River is Script error: No such module "convert". long. The Ethiopian Ministry of Water Resources reports its Ethiopian catchment area as Script error: No such module "convert"., with an annual runoff of 0.26 billion cubic meters.[2] Other sources talking about a catchment of Script error: No such module "convert". to Script error: No such module "convert". over all, and a discharge of Script error: No such module "convert". in average over the year, and Script error: No such module "convert". in peaks.[3] Its headwaters rise south-west of Asmara in central Eritrea. It flows south, bordering Ethiopia, then west through western Eritrea to reach the Sudanese plains near Kassala. Unlike the Setit or Takazze rivers, which flow out of Ethiopia and also forms a natural border with Eritrea, the waters of the Mareb do not usually reach the Nile[4] but dissipate in the sands of the eastern Sudanese plains, forming an inland delta.
The Mareb is dry for much of the year, but like the Takazze is subject to sudden floods during the rainy season; only the left bank of the upper course of the Mareb is in Ethiopian territory. Its main tributaries are the Obel River on the right bank (in Eritrea) and the Sarana, Balasa, Mai Shawesh, and 'Engweya Rivers on the left (in Ethiopia).
History
The Mareb was important historically as the boundary between two separately governed regions in the area: the land of the Bahr negash (Tigrinya "kingdom of the sea", also known as Medri Bahri or "land of/by the sea") to the north of the river, and the Tigray to the south. The territories under the Bahr negash extended as far north as the Red Sea coast, and as far south (and west) as Shire[5] and the capital was at Debarwa in modern Eritrea, about Script error: No such module "convert". south of Asmara.
Wildlife
The river's Eritrean floodplain was the location of a 2001 sighting of a sizable elephant herd, the first such sighting in Eritrea since 1955.[6]
See also
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
- ↑ Eritrea - Ethiopia Boundary Commission Decision Regarding Delimitation of the Border..., pp. 97, 102
- ↑ "Water Sector Development Program (Vol.2)" Template:Webarchive Ministry of Water Resources (accessed 21 January 2009)
- ↑ ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT KASSALA Template:Webarchive
- ↑ Adequacy of satellite derived rainfall data for stream flow modeling Template:Webarchive
- ↑ Daniel Kendie, The Five Dimensions of the Eritrean Conflict 1941 – 2004: Deciphering the Geo-Political Puzzle (United States of America: Signature Book Printing, 2005), pp. 17–8.
- ↑ BBC Wildlife magazine, July 2003, retrieved at [1] on 28 Sept 2007
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Template:Rivers of Eritrea Template:Rivers of Ethiopia Script error: No such module "Coordinates".