Dek Island
Dek Island (Amharic: ደቅ ደሴት Däq Däset) is the biggest island (approximately 16 square kilometers in size) on Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It is administratively included in the Bahir Dar Zuria woreda of the Mirab Gojjam Zone. To the southeast of Dek is the much smaller Daga Island. Overview Dek Island is home to several monasteries, the best-known being Narga Selassie. Dek is accessible by the ferry that runs from Bahir Dar to Gorgora. Hormuzd Rassam mentions visiting the island in February 1866, describing that at the time it contained four villages with a church attached to each one. Rassam also repeats the story told to him how Dejazmach Kassa (the later Emperor Tewodros II) captured Dek in a single assault. When R.E. Cheesman visited Dek in 1932 and 1933, he found that it was not strictly "monasterial", but with five churches each with a small village nearby. Cheesman continues his description: Three-quarters of the island is given up to plough, the chief crops being dagusa and teff, both dwarf millets. Plough-land is divided into plots of about an acre, separated from each other by narrow hedges of scrub forest and big trees. The base of the island is scoriaceous