Pedro Páez Jaramillo, S.J. was a Spanish Jesuit missionary in Ethiopia. Páez is considered by many experts on Ethiopia to be the most effective Catholic missionary in Ethiopia. He is believed to be the first European to see and describe the source of the Blue Nile, which he reached on 21 April 1618.
Undated portrait of Páez
The Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It travels for approximately 1,450 km (900 mi) through Ethiopia and Sudan. Along with the White Nile, it is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the water to the Nile during the rainy season.
Blue Nile River in Ethiopia
Satellite image of where White and Blue Niles merge
Confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers near Khartoum, the capital of Sudan
Men pull each other across the Blue Nile by rope prior to the building of a new bridge