Lake Ashenge

About

Lake Hashenge (also Lake Hashange, Lake Hashengi) is a lake in the southern Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Ethiopian Highlands at an elevation of 2409 meters, it has no outlet. According to the Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68, Lake Hashenge is five kilometers long and four wide, with a surface area of 20 square kilometers. The British explorer Henry Salt, who notes that the Tigrinya name of the lake is Tsada Bahri ("White Sea") from the number of birds which cover its surface, records a local tradition that a large city once stood on the site of Hashenge, but "it was destroyed, in his displeasure, by the immediate hand of God." The legend is vivid up to today. On shores of the lake is Mifsas Bahri an important archaeological site of late Axumite remains.

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