Kebran Gabriel

This monastery occupies an island near the southern shore of Lake Tana and is one of the most visited of the lake's many religious retreats. Founded in the fourteenth century and rebuilt in the seventeenth, its circular church preserves illuminated manuscripts, crosses and religious paintings of high artistic value. A small treasury displays some of these objects to visitors. Access is restricted to men, in keeping with the monastic rule, and the island is reached by boat from Bahir Dar.