Today’s Image of the Day comes from the NASA Earth Observatory and features a look at the Dek and Daga Islands in Ethiopia.

The photo was taken by an astronaut on board the International Space Station.

Both islands are located in Lake Tana in the Amhara region of the Ethiopian highlands.

Lake Tana is the largest lake in Ethiopia, and Dek Island is the lake’s largest island, measuring 4.4 miles from north to south.

The light green color of the lake is a result of algal blooms that formed from nutrient pollution caused by fertilizer and wastewater runoff.

Daga Island is located in the southeastern part of Lake Tana in Ethiopia. Southeast of the much larger Dek Island, Daga has a latitude and longitude of 11°53′N 37°18′ECoordinates: 11°53′N 37°18′E. The entire island, consisting of a volcanic cone some 300 feet high, is considered holy and no females, either women or farm animals, are allowed on the island.

The primary point of interest of the island is the monastery of Daga Estifanos, or “St. Stephen of Daga”. When R.E. Cheesman visited the monastery 4 March 1933, he found the monks there were “the most rigid recluses of any in Abyssinia.” The original church dedicated to St. Michael had been struck by lightning and burned down before his time, and was replaced by a modern rectangular one. He was allowed in the Irkbet, where church properties and books were kept, and allowed to examine them. In the back of the same building were interred the remains of several Emperors in wooden coffins placed on shelves: Yekuno Amlak, Dawit I, Zara Yaqob, Za Dengel and Fasilides, and Bakaffa

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By Rory Arnold, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: NASA Earth Observatory