The Nile, of course, is not a single river. It is formed from two main tributaries, the White and Blue Niles, which join at Khartoum, in Sudan¹

Although the Blue Nile is the shorter tributary, it contributes the majority of the water. Its source is in the highlands of Ethiopia, supposedly at a sacred spring near the town of Gish Abay. This site has been known to Europeans since a Spanish missionary, Pedro Páez, visited in 1618. The aerial imagery suggests, however, that the stream actually begins some way beyond the town.

The White Nile is the longer branch, and so the source of this river is the true beginning of the Nile. In 1858, the explorer John Hanning Speke became the first European to see Lake Victoria, which he claimed to be the fabled source. Four years later he journeyed to Ripon Falls (now submerged by a dam), where the White Nile exits the lake.

Although Lake Victoria is still often considered to be the source, the Nile can actually be traced back further, to the headwaters of the longest river flowing into the lake. It turns out that this is the Kagera River, and its remotest source was traced to the hills of Burundi by a German, Burckhard Waldecker, in 1934. His discovery is commemorated by a pyramid erected on the summit of Mount Kikizi, just above the true source… which, judging by this photograph, appears to be a small plastic pipe used by the locals for doing the washing up!

So does that settle the age-old question? Not quite. In 2006, a team of explorers from New Zealand and Britain travelled to what they claim is the most distant source, in the Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda. Unfortunately the imagery here is low-res, but you can see a photo of this source via this site (the expedition’s official website appears to be dead).

Who’s right? Without high-resolution imagery, it’s hard to say. What is certain, though, is that the Burundian source is much further south than the one in Rwanda, so – in a straight line, at least – it’s further from the mouth of the river. In theory, it ought to be possible to use Google Maps’ Distance Measurement tool to measure the total length along each little stream extremely accurately. Any readers have a lot of time on their hands?

Locations: Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda / Categories: Monuments, Natural Landmarks

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Volcanoes probably aren’t the first thing you associate with Ethiopia, but Erta Ale is a particularly fine specimen.

It may only be a little over 600 metres high¹, but this volcano (whose name means “smoking mountain” in the local Afar language) is home to a fiery lake of lava – one of only five in the world! Little wonder that it is known locally as the “gateway to hell”. Living near here seems a risky proposition – a large eruption in 2005 killed hundreds of livestock and forced villages to be evacuated, and further eruptions two years later also caused hundreds of residents to flee.

Erta Ale is located in the Afar Depression, which is very geologically active: three “rift zones” (where tectonic plates are being forced apart) meeting nearby. As well as several volcanoes, there’s a multitude of hot springs and incredibly salty lakes.

Just below Erta Ale is the strikingly blue Lake Afrera, which is believed to contain at least 290 million tons of salt, but pales in comparison to Lake Assal, across the border in Djibouti. Assal is the saltiest lake on Earth², with a salinity 10 times greater than that of the ocean.

The region has another red-hot claim to fame. Even away from the boiling lava, it is said to be the hottest place on Earth, in terms of yearly average temperature. The mining community of Dallol (near the volcano of the same name) recorded a mind-boggling average temperature of 34°C between 1960 and 1966, although today it is a ghost town.

The BBC website has an interesting article on the challenges of surveying Erta Ale, including a video of one of the scientist abseiling into the crater. There’s more about the volcano at Wikipedia.

Locations: Ethiopia / Categories: Abandoned, Volcanoes

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Dated to the 12th and 13th centuries, but still actively used for worship, the Churches are each carved from a single piece of rock – either down into the ground, or into a hillside. The most well-known of the Churches is Bete Giyorgis¹, or the Church of St. George, with its distinctive cross shape approximately 25m square, surrounded by deep trench walls.

The last of the Churches to be built, and the best preserved, Bete Giyorgis was constructed on the orders of King Gebre Mesqel Lalibela after seeing it in a vision. The town (formerly known as Roha) later took his name to honour his legacy.

A number of structures described below have tin roofs – added, one assumes, rather later than the 13th century. While this obscures the view on Google’s images, they are obviously intended to protect the historic structures from the elements. Panoramio has an excellent selection of images of most of the Churches to give you a true sense of their beauty.

Just to the north-east of Bete Giyorgis can be found a cluster of 6 Churches known as the Northern Group. Bete Medhane Alem (the largest tin roof – the structure shown clearly here in an excellent historic photo) is considered the largest monolithic Church in the world, and houses the Lalibela Cross, one of Ethiopia’s most sacred religious relics.

The middle of the 3 roofs houses Bete Maryam, thought to be the oldest of the Churches in the area, while Bete Golgotha – at the western edge of this Group – may contain the tomb of King Lalibela.

The Eastern Group consists of 4 Churches, notably Bete Amanuel, thought to be the Royal Chapel, and Bete Abba Libanos which is carved from a rock face on a hillside (respectively, the largest and bottom-most of the roofs in the image below).

The Rock Churches are protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For further reading, Wikipedia has good information, and Sacred Destinations has more background accompanied by superb pictures.

Locations: Ethiopia / Categories: Buildings, Monuments

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In fact it’s so trendy that even Hollywood actresses are getting in on the act with Angelina Jolie’s latest tattoo featuring 4 latitude and longitude cordinates¹.

Plugging the coordinates into Google Earth, the first leads us to Cambodia. This is supposedly where her first son, Maddox, was born.

Specifically, the lat/long leads us to a pond just outside the airport but I guess she was just aiming for the general area.

Following the next coordinate we are led to Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Abeba, where the eldest daughter Zahara was born.

For her third coordinate Angelina has gone a bit more specific, pointing to the Namibian beach resort of Swakopmund. This is where she gave birth to Brad Pitt’s baby Shiloh.

And lastly on our tour Angelina takes us to Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam, where latest addition Pax Thien was born.

Of course, if she wanted to be really up-to-the-minute she should have had a KML file tattooed down her arm instead

Thanks: AndrewAnorak

Locations: Cambodia, Ethiopia, Namibia, Vietnam /

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On the 19th of June 2005, a Mahfooz Aviation Boeing 707-347C crashed while landing at Addis Ababa-Bole Airport in Ethiopia. Luckily all 5 crew survived, but the aircraft was written off.

Although I could be wrong (hey, it’s happened before), I believe that this Google Earth satellite photo shows the wreckage of that exact crashed plane!

So, what’s my proof? Firstly, the original Google Earth satellite photo was dated as November 2005 and the June crash is the only Addis Ababa-Bole Airport incident listed on the Aviation Safety Network for the whole of 2005.

For further proof I measured the wingspan of the crashed plane using the Google Earth ruler, and it more or less matches the 44.42 m wingspan of a 707-320B.

In December 2006 we took the following screenshot from Google Earth, which showed the plane’s fuselage as little more than a pile of rubble.

The next screenshot was taken in July 2007 when Google Earth’s imagery for the region had been updated.

This shows the fuselage of the plane complete, with the tail section broken off and lying to the side. There is clearly a path of debris leading off the runway, confirming the crash was a runway mishap.

I would guess that the Google Earth image “update” was actually a regression in time, and the second photo shows the plane before it had been dismantled (probably to clear it away).

Locations: Ethiopia / Categories: Aircraft

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