Atbara

Atbara, a tributary of the Nile, rises in Abyssinia near Lake Tzana, flows mainly north-west, and after receiving the larger Takazze, joins the Nile below Berber—being the only tributary of the Nile below the junction of the White with the Blue Nile. There on 8th April 1898 the Khalifa's forces were defeated by the Anglo-Egyptian army under Kitchener (see SOUDAN, MAHDI, KITCHENER). The Soudan railway had reached the Atbara in the summer of 1898, and proved of the utmost service in forwarding troops for the Omdurman campaign. In 1899 the extension of the railway to Khartoum was in progress, and an iron bridge of 1200 feet in length now spans the Atbara. See NILE, EGYPT.