Africa Lakes,Lakes of Africa ,African Lakes, East Africa Lakes,Great Lakes, Great Rift Valley Lakes,Africa Soda Lakes The Great Lakes may be grouped depending on the three different catchments or rivers that drain into each lake. In other instances like the Lake Turkana and a number of others have internal drainage systems. The following, in order of size from largest to smallest, are included on most lists of the African Great Lakes
Lake Victoria
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Malawi
Lake Turkana
Lake Albert
Lake Kivu
Lake Edward
Some call only Lake Victoria, Lake Albert, and Lake Edward the Great Lakes, as they are the only three that empty into the White Nile. Lake Kyoga is part of Great Lakes system, though it is not itself considered to be a Great Lake, based on size alone. Lake Tanganyika and Lake Kivu both empty into the Congo River. Lake Malawi is drained by the Shire River into the Zambezi. Lake Turkana has no outlet.
Lake Rukwa and Lake Mweru are close to Lake Tanganyika and do not appear on the lists despite being larger than Edward and Kivu.
The Great Lake region is used narrowly to refer to the area lying between northern Lake Tanganyika, western Lake Victoria, and lakes Kivu, Edward and Albert. The Great Lake region comprises of Burundi, Rwanda, north-eastern DR Congo, Uganda and north-western Kenya and Tanzania. In a wider sense the region extends to all of Kenya and Tanzania, but does not usually include Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique nor Ethiopia, though these countries border one of the Great Lakes. |
