Lake Afambo

{{Short description|Lake in Ethiopia}} {{Infobox body of water | name = Lake Afambo | image = Afambo NASA.jpg | caption = | image_bathymetry = | caption_bathymetry = | location = eastern end of the [[Afar Region]] | coords = {{coord|11|25|19|N|41|40|21|E|region:ET_type:waterbody|display=inline,title}} | type = | inflow = [[Awash River]] | outflow = | catchment = | basin_countries = Ethiopia | length = {{cvt|13|km}} | width = {{cvt|2|km}} | area = {{cvt|1760|ha}} | depth = | max-depth = | volume = | residence_time = | shore = | elevation = | islands = | sections = | cities =  | pushpin_map = Ethiopia | pushpin_label_position = | pushpin_map_alt = Location of Lake Afambo in Ethiopia. | pushpin_map_caption =  | website = | reference = }} '''Lake Afambo''' is one of a chain of lakes into which the [[Awash River]] empties its waters. It is located at the eastern end of the [[Afar Region]] of [[Ethiopia]].

==Overview== The lake lies on a roughly north–south axis, 13 kilometers long by two wide, having 1760 hectares of open water.<ref>Robert Mepham, R. H. Hughes, and J. S. Hughes, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VLjafeXa3gMC&pg=PP1 ''A directory of African wetlands''], (Cambridge: IUCN, UNEP and WCMC, 1992), p. 166</ref> Afambo receives its inflow from [[Lake Gummare]] from a channel at its northern point, and has its outflow in the swamps on its southwest shores where it empties into [[Lake Bario]].

The first European to visit Lake Afambo was [[Wilfred Thesiger]], who explored the course of the Awash to its ultimate ending point in 1935. Thesiger led his party along the eastern and southern sides of this lake.<ref>Thesiger, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1787031 "The Awash River and the Aussa Sultanate"], ''[[Geographical Journal]]'', 85 (1935), p. 16</ref> This area did not see another visitor from outside Ethiopia until Pele Thompson retraced Thesiger's steps in May and June 2001. There had been a bridge over the channel linking lakes Gummare and Afambo at Ebobe, but it had "collapsed some time ago." Further, while Lake Afambo had been a [[fresh water]] lake when Thesiger visited in, it has since become very saline due to the amount of water diverted upstream for irrigation purposes.<ref>Philip Briggs, ''Ethiopia: The Bradt Travel Guide'', 5th edition (Chalfont St Peters: Bradt, 2009), pp. 402f</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Afambo}} [[Category:Afar Region]] [[Category:Awash River]] [[Category:Lakes of Ethiopia]] [[Category:Lakes of the Great Rift Valley]]