church, confirms that its size was some 150 feet by 150 feet — wholly covered in gold leaf, inlaid with gems, pearls and corals 21st century After the social movements of 2014–2017, Amhara nationalism developed strongly in the region, with a discourse that includes both issues of power balance between elites and territorial claims. Several local politicians, such as Dejene Maru backed by General Asaminew Tsige, were able to control armed factions. On 22 June 2019, factions of the security forces of the region attempted a coup d'état against the regional government, during which the President of the Amhara region, Ambachew Mekonnen, was assassinated. A bodyguard siding with the nationalist factions assassinated General Se'are Mekonnen – the Chief of the General Staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Force – as well as his aide, Major General Gizae Aberra. The Prime Minister's Office accused Brigadier General Asaminew Tsige, head of the Amhara region security forces, of leading the plot, and Tsige was shot dead by police near Bahir Dar on 24 June. Geography Water flow According to the Ethiopian government website, the Amhara Highlands receive 80% of Ethiopia’s total annual rainfall of and are the country's most fertile and climatically hospitable region. Lake Tana, in the Amhara Region, is the source of the Blue Nile—at Bahir Dar. When the Blue Nile's flow is at maximum volume (during the rainy season from June to September), it supplies about two-thirds of the water of the Nile proper. Until the 1970 completion of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt, the Blue Nile, together with the Atbara River to its north (which also flows out of the Ethiopian Highlands), caused annual Nile floods that contributed to the fertility of the Nile Valley, enabling the rise of ancient Egyptian civilization, which in turn enabled the development of Egyptian mythology. Lake Tana Lake Tana contains several islands, whose numbers vary depending on the water level in the lake. (Over the last 400 years, that level has fallen about .) In the early 17th century, according to a contemporaneous report by Manoel de Almeida, a Portuguese missionary, there were 21 islands, which he described as "formerly large, but now much diminished,” and seven or eight of them had monasteries on them. In the late 18th century, James Bruce visited the area and noted that, though the locals reported that there were 45 inhabited islands, he believed that "the