wereta appears in the "royal chronicles" during the first reign of emperor tekle giyorgis (1779-1784), as the place whence "ras" hailu eshte fled after escaping imprisonment in gondar. wereta was included as one of the stages of the gondar-boso trade route of the 1840s, located immediately south of the reb river, according to a list compiled by antoine thomson d'abbadie in his "geodesie d'ethiopie".