The Blue Nile (; transliterated: ʿAbbay but pronounced Abbai, ) is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. With the White Nile, the river becomes one of the two major tributaries of the Nile. The upper course of the river is called the Abbay in Ethiopia, where many regard it as holy. Some Ethiopians have long identified the Blue Nile as the River Gihon mentioned as flowing out of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2 and "encircling the entire land of Cush".