Bahir Dar grew around a Jesuit settlement, founded in the sixteenth or seventeenth century; a building from this period and associated with Pedro Páez can be seen standing near the central square.
The city is located in north western Ethiopia, and is the 3rd largest city in Ethiopia the city has an estimated population 170,000. Bahir Dar is one of the leading and best tourist destinations in Ethiopia with a variety of attractions in the nearby Lake Tana and Blue Nile river, it is also capital of the Amhara land region. The city is distinctly known for its wide avenues lined with palm trees and a variety of colorful flowers.
It is also considered as one of the most beautiful, well planned, and safest cities in Africa by many standards, and in 2002 it was awarded UNESCO Cities for Peace Prize for managing to address the challenges of rapid social economic developments.
The city is located approximately 578 km north-northwest of Addis Ababa and an elevation of 1840m above sea level. At least two main attractions are a must see in Bahir Dar: “Tis Isat”, the misty Blue Nile Falls is a most dramatic spectacle on either the White or the Blue Nile rivers.
The waterfall is four hundred meters (1,312 feet) wide when the river is in flood and it descends to the river surface below over a sheer chasm more than forty-five meters (150 feet) deep, in the course of which this misty falls throw up a continuous spray of water, which drenches onlookers up to a kilometre away. The delight to the visitor of this majestic waterfall is the rainbows it produces, which shimmer across the gorge, and the site, a small perennial rainforest of lush green vegetation, which is equally the delight of many monkeys and multicolored birds inhabiting the area.
Map of Bahir Dar City