Bahir Dar
This large town on the southern shore of Lake Tana has a sticky tropical ambience unusual fr northern Ethiopia and more similar to places like Hawassa in the southern rift valley. Palm-lined avenues and pretty lake side places make Bahir Dar a decidedly attractive town and it is also the base for visits to Blue Nile falls and Lake Tana’s a number of monasteries. As recently as the early 1950s, Bahir Dar was little more than a sleepy lakeshore village, overshadowed politically and economically b Gondar to the north and Debremarkos to the South. The initial stimulus for its t subsequent rapid growth was the decision to build a hydro electric plant to narby Tis Abay. Following to this, Bahir Dar has become one of Ethiopia’s most important industrial centre and the country’s seventh largest town with a population approaching 250,000 mark and western outskirts that have visibly expanded since 1994.
Although the town itself is modern, the waterfront church of Bahir Dar Giorgis situated near the main traffic roundabout was founded at least 400 years ago. The original church was knocked to make way to the large and more modern but not attractive structure during Haile Selasse period but the compound also houses a disused two-storey stone tower architecturally evocative of the Gondarian palace and whose construction is attributed to the Jesuit priest pedro paez during the reign Susneyos.