Lake Hayq - History

History

According to a local legend, the lake was created to avenge a pregnant woman who was wronged by a princess. God was greatly angered by this injustice, and in his wrath turned all of the land surrounding the woman (except the ground she was sitting on) into water forming a lake, destroying the princess along with her friends and family in the process. Where the pregnant woman was sitting became an island (now a peninsula) where Istifanos Monastery, founded in the middle of the 13th century by Iyasus Mo'a, is located.

A former student of Iyasus Mo'a, Tekle Haymanot, went on to found the monastery of Debra Asbos (renamed in the 15th century to Debre Libanos) in Shewa. Tekle Haymanot was one of five bright young religious stodents who became the "five lights of Christianity" for the south of Ethiopia. Iyasus Mo'a also played a role in Yekuno Amlak's overthrow of the Zagwe dynasty, and helped restore the Solomonic dynasty. Upon Yekuno Amlak's ascension to the throne, Istifanos Church became Istifanos Monastery.

The church was established around the 8th century during the Axumite era, and was the first one in what was then the Amhara province. The events surrounding its establishment, however, are not clear. Some legends suggest that there was an Aksumite palace in Ambasselle opposite the modern Istifanos monastery, located on the opposite side of the Lake Hayq. Imam Ahmad Gragn looted and burned this church in November, 1531. The ruins of the church are still visible, and the legend states that the kings and princes who lived in that palace established the church.

The first known European to view the lake was Francisco Álvares, who passed near it 21 September 1520; he mentions the lake had hippopotamuses and catfish, and the land around it were planted in lemons, oranges and citrons. Just prior to his accession in 1606, Susenyos I made his way to the lake Hayk area, where he expelled a group of Oromo who had infiltrated into the vicinity of Istifanos Monastery.