Lake Tanganyika is the longest and one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, Lake Tanganyika is part of a lake chain in the Great Rift Valley of Africa. The lake is 660 kilometers long and has a depth of 1,436 meters and only Lake Baikal in Siberia is deeper than Lake Tanzania. It varies in width from 16 to 72 kilometers and has a surface area of about 32,893 sq km. The surface is 655 meters above sea level.
Burundi is mountainous country and the mountain slopes are wet and cool. A north-south range, rising to more than 2,590 meters divides between the drainage systems of the Congo and Nile rivers. The Burundi mountains slope gently toward the Tanzanian boundary on the east but drop abruptly toward the west. Here lie the lowlands along the Ruzizi River and Lake Tanganyika. These plains are part of Africa's Great Rift Valley. The varied animal spieces found here includes elephants, lions, leopards, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, buffalo, warthogs, baboons, and antelopes. The lake’s dark waters form the word’s largest and second-deepest freshwater lake, and the area is a regional centre for building dhow fishing boats that sail through its rugged waters. The largest rivers that feed the lake are the Malagarasi, the Ruzizi, and the Kalambo, which has one of the highest waterfalls in the world. Its outlet is the Lukuga River, which flows into the Lualaba River. Hippopotamuses and crocodiles abound, and the bird life is varied.
Most of the peoples live on the lake’s eastern borders are predominantly Bantu-speaking. The lake was first visited by Europeans in 1858, when the British explorers Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke arrived at Ujiji, on the lake’s eastern shore, in search of the source of the Nile River. In 1871 Henry Morton Stanley “found” David Livingstone at Ujiji. Important ports situated along Lake Tanganyika are Bujumbura (Burundi), Kalemi Congo, and Ujiji and Kigoma Tanzania.
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