Lake Tanganyika: Africa Natural Safari
AFRICA NATURAL SAFARI (The best tour company in Tanzania)
Specialized in:
Wildlife safaris, Cultural tourism, and Beach holidays and
Mountain climbing
Contact +255 653 679 958
Lake Tanganyika
Lake
Tanganyika is the world’s longest (660km), deepest in Africa and second-deepest
in the world (more than 1436m) and second-largest (by volume) freshwater lake.
At somewhere between nine and 13 million years old, it’s also one of the
oldest. Thanks to its age and ecological isolation its home to an exceptional
number of endemic fish, including 98% of the 250-plus species of cichlids.
Cichlids are popular aquarium fish due to their bright colours, and they make
Tanganyika an outstanding snorkelling and diving destination.
Comparatively
narrow, varying in width from 10 to 45 miles (16 to 72 km), it covers about
12,700 square miles (32,900 square km) and forms the boundary between Tanzania
and Congo (Kinshasa). It occupies the southern end of the Western Rift Valley,
and for most of its length the land rises steeply from its shores. Its waters
tend to be brackish. Though fed by a number of rivers, the lake is not the
centre of an extensive drainage area. The largest rivers discharging into the
lake are the Malagarasi, the Ruzizi, and the Kalambo, which has one of the
highest waterfalls in the world (704 feet [215 metres]). Its outlet is the
Lukuga River, which flows into the Lualaba River.
Lake
Tanganyika is situated on the line dividing the floral regions of eastern and
western Africa, and oil palms, which are characteristic of the flora of western
Africa, grow along the lake’s shores. Rice and subsistence crops are grown
along the shores, and fishing is of some significance. Hippopotamuses and
crocodiles abound, and the bird life is varied.
Many
of the numerous peoples (predominantly Bantu-speaking) living on the lake’s
eastern borders trace their origins to areas in the Congo River basin. The lake
was first visited by Europeans in 1858, when the British explorers Sir Richard
Burton and John Hanning Speke reached Ujiji, on the lake’s eastern shore, in
their quest for the source of the Nile River. In 1871 Henry (later Sir Henry)
Morton Stanley “found” David Livingstone at Ujiji. Important ports situated
along Lake Tanganyika are Bujumbura (Burundi), Kalemi (Congo), and Ujiji and
Kigoma (Tanzania)
.
For
more information visit www.africanaturaltours.com
No comments:
Write comments