The Gilgel Abay (Amharic: ግልገል አባይ, Gǝlgäl Abbay), or Lesser Abay, is a river of central Ethiopia. Rising in the mountains of Gojjam, it flows northward to empty into south-western Lake Tana at 11°48′N 37°7′E / 11.800°N 37.117°E. Tributaries of the Gilgel Abbay include the Ashar, Jamma, Kelti and the Koger. It was regarded as the true source of the Nile for a long time and the Jesuit priest Pedro Paez visited it in 1618. The name Gilgel Abbay means Lesser Nile, as Abbay is the name for the Blue Nile.
It is a meandering river, with a catchment area of 3887 km³. Near its mouth it is 71 meter wide, with a slope gradient of 0.7 metre per kilometre. The average diameter of the bed material is 0.37 mm (sand).[1]
The river carries annually 22,185 tonnes of bedload and 7.6 million tonnes of suspended sediment to Lake Tana.[1]