Gilo River

{{Infobox river

| name = Gilo River

| map = Sobat OSM.png

| map_caption = Map of the Sobat basin, showing the Gilo River

| mouth_coordinates = {{coord|8|8|29.8|N|33|11|31.2|E|display=it}}

| other_name = Mene, Owis, Bako

| subdivision_type1 = Country

| subdivision_name1 = Ethiopia

| subdivision_type2 = Regions

| subdivision_name2 = Gambela, Oromia, SWEPR

| source1_elevation = {{cvt|2251|m}}

| source1_coordinates = {{coord|7.351594|N|35.708151|E|format=dms}}

| mouth = Pibor River

| mouth_elevation = {{cvt|406|m}}

| length = {{cvt|444|km}}{{Cite journal |last=Lehner |first=Bernhard |last2=Verdin |first2=Kristine |last3=Jarvis |first3=Andy |date=2008-03-04 |title=New Global Hydrography Derived From Spaceborne Elevation Data |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008eo100001 |journal=Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union |volume=89 |issue=10 |pages=93–94 |doi=10.1029/2008eo100001 |issn=0096-3941}}

| discharge1_location = Mouth

| discharge1_min = {{cvt|19.8|m3/s}}

| discharge1_avg = {{cvt|69.8|m3/s}}

| discharge1_max = {{cvt|162|m3/s}}

| progression = Pibor → Sobat → White Nile → Nile → Mediterranean Sea

| river_system = Nile

| basin_size = {{cvt|12228|km2}}

| basin_population = 1,050,000 Liu, L., Cao, X., Li, S., & Jie, N. (2023). GlobPOP: A 31-year (1990-2020) global gridded population dataset generated by cluster analysis and statistical learning (1.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10088105

| source_confluence_coordinates = {{coord|7|7|9.5|N|35|17|57.8|E}}

}}{{Short description|River in Ethiopia}}

The Gilo River is a river in the Gambela Region of southwestern Ethiopia. A variety of names also knows it: the Gimira of Dizu call it the "Mene", while the Gemira of Chako call it "Owis", and Amhara and Oromo settlers in the early 20th century knew it by a third name, "Bako".George Montandon, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1778349 "A Journey in South-Western Abyssinia", Geographical Journal], 40, (1912),p. 379 From its source in the Ethiopian Highlands near Mizan Teferi it flows to the west, through Lake Tata to join the Pibor River on Ethiopia's border with Sudan.As Oscar Rudolph Neumann reports, having followed the Gilo from its source west as far as this lake. (Neumann, "From the Somali Coast through Southern Ethiopian to Sudan", Geographical Journal, 20 [October 1902], pp. 373–398.) The combined waters then join the Sobat River and the White Nile.{{cite book |last= Shinn |first= David H. |author2=Thomas P. Ofcansky |title= Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia |year= 2004 |publisher= Scarecrow Press |isbn= 0-8108-4910-0 |pages= 360–361}}; online at [https://books.google.com/books?id=zbvd6_eLw_0C Google Books]

The Gilo River flows mainly through the Baro Salient, a portion of Ethiopia that juts westward into Sudan. The river valley was subjected to much prospecting for gold before World War II and in the 1950s, but not enough was found to make commercial extraction viable.[http://130.238.24.99/library/resources/dossiers/local_history_of_ethiopia/g/ORTGIA.pdf "Local History in Ethiopia"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110528224956/http://130.238.24.99/library/resources/dossiers/local_history_of_ethiopia/g/ORTGIA.pdf |date=2011-05-28 }} The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 1 June 2008)

Burchard Heinrich Jessen, who was part of W.N. McMillan's expedition that traveled through this part of southwestern Ethiopia in 1904, estimated its length at 200 miles and noted that at flood the width of the Gilo reaches 80 to 100 yards, with a depth of about 20 feet. Jessen further wrote that at the time of his visit:

{{Quote

|text=The river abounds with fish, and as a natural consequence, the crocodiles are very numerous and large. At midday, practically every sandbank is covered with them. It is a remarkable fact that the hippopotami are conspicuous by their absence, only one having been seen and killed many years ago, as these animals are plentiful everywhere in these countries.

|author=B H. Jessen

|title="South-Western Abyssinia"

|source=Geographical Journal (1905)B. H. Jessen, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1775880 "South-Western Abyssinia," Geographical Journal], 25 (1905), p. 160

}}