Mitraha Island ( Amharic: መትራሃ ደሴት Mätraha Däset) is located in the northeastern part of Lake Tana in Ethiopia, about a mile from the lake's shore. It has a latitude and longitude of 12°11′N 37°34′E / 12.183°N 37.567°E. The island contains the ruins of a number of churches.
The first church built on the island, by the Ethiopian Emperor Dawit I, was torched by Imam Ahmad Gragn. Later structures include a big masonry church constructed by the Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes I and the mausoleum of the Emperor Iyasu I. These edifices were also burned in 1887 by Dervish raiders. [1]
When Arthur J. Hayes visited Mitraha 14 January 1904, he found it "a perfectly pretty islet, with quaint thatched cottages among foliage and a ruinous old church" -- the one Iyasu I was entombed in. Although the inhabitants food sources were limited to poultry and " durrha when we can get it", they had stopped fishing the lake since the death of Emperor Yohannes I; Hayes speculates this out of superstition. Hayes continues, "The island is traversed in all directions by narrow tracked marked by trodden leaves, and there is a thick undergrowth of weeds, thistles, and thorns." He was much intrigued by a spider "about the size of a shilling, with a speckled abdomen and legs of enormous length" which appeared to be found only on Mitraha. [2]
- ^ R.E. Cheesman, "Lake Tana and Its Islands", Geographical Journal, 85 (1935), p. 499
- ^ Hayes, The Source of the Blue Nile (London, 1905), pp. 95-95
 | This article about a location in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Mitraha Island ( Amharic: መትራሃ ደሴት Mätraha Däset) is located in the northeastern part of Lake Tana in Ethiopia, about a mile from the lake's shore. It has a latitude and longitude of 12°11′N 37°34′E / 12.183°N 37.567°E. The island contains the ruins of a number of churches.
The first church built on the island, by the Ethiopian Emperor Dawit I, was torched by Imam Ahmad Gragn. Later structures include a big masonry church constructed by the Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes I and the mausoleum of the Emperor Iyasu I. These edifices were also burned in 1887 by Dervish raiders. [1]
When Arthur J. Hayes visited Mitraha 14 January 1904, he found it "a perfectly pretty islet, with quaint thatched cottages among foliage and a ruinous old church" -- the one Iyasu I was entombed in. Although the inhabitants food sources were limited to poultry and " durrha when we can get it", they had stopped fishing the lake since the death of Emperor Yohannes I; Hayes speculates this out of superstition. Hayes continues, "The island is traversed in all directions by narrow tracked marked by trodden leaves, and there is a thick undergrowth of weeds, thistles, and thorns." He was much intrigued by a spider "about the size of a shilling, with a speckled abdomen and legs of enormous length" which appeared to be found only on Mitraha. [2]
- ^ R.E. Cheesman, "Lake Tana and Its Islands", Geographical Journal, 85 (1935), p. 499
- ^ Hayes, The Source of the Blue Nile (London, 1905), pp. 95-95
|
| This article about a location in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |