Bahir Dar or Bahar Dar (Amharic: ባሕር ዳር) is a city in northwestern Ethiopia. It is the capital of the Amhara Region. It has 218,429 people (2012). The nearby Lake Tana and Blue Nile rivers feature a variety of attractions and is a popular tourist attraction in Ethiopia. The city was awarded the UNESCO Cities for Peace Prize for addressing the challenges of rapid urbanization in 2002.