ETHIOPIAN HISTORICAL SITES

Gojam is the home of Lake Tana. With an area of 3000 sq.km. Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, is the largest lake in Ethiopia. It is also the home of thirty seven Islands, twenty of which shelter ancient churches and monasteries. Christianity probably first spread to this areas from Axum as early as the fifth century AD. However, the lake's many monasteries did not begin to be built the middle years of the 14th century during the reign of Emperor Amde Tsion. Some of the churches are the repositories of the finest murals and rare illumination of the Middle Ages period of the Ethiopian history. Security consideration, known to have been very serious at one stage of the country's history is believed to have been behind the decision of many churches to seek and find safe haven on Lake Tana Islands.