Everything you need to know about Lake Tanganyika - 255 Updates

Lake Tanganyika is the longest lake in the world (660 km), and it is the deepest in Africa and the second deepest in the world (more than 1436 meters) and the second largest freshwater lake (by volume). Somewhere between nine and 13 million years ago, it's also one of the oldest. Thanks to its age and environmental insulation it is home to an exceptional number of endemic fish, including 98% of more than 250 species of cichlids. Cichlids are famous ornamental fish because of their bright colors, they make Tanganyika a great snorkeling and diving destination.

Relatively narrow, it varies in width from 10 to 45 miles (16 to 72 km), covers about 12,700 square miles (32,900 sq km) and forms the border between Tanzania and the Congo (Kinshasa). It occupies the southern end of the Rift Valley, and along it the land rises steeply from its shores. Its waters tend to be salty. Although the lake feeds from a number of rivers, it is not the center of a wide drainage area. The largest rivers flowing into the lake are Malagarasi, Ruzizi, and Kalambo, which have one of the highest waterfalls in the world (704 feet [215 meters]). Its outlet is the Lukuga River, which flows into the Lualaba River.

Lake Tanganyika lies on the dividing line between the flower regions of eastern and western Africa, and palm trees, which are characteristic of plants in West Africa, grow along the shores of the lake. Rice and subsistence crops are cultivated along the beaches, and fishing is of some importance. Hippopotamus and crocodiles abound, and bird life varies.

Many of the many (mostly Bantu-speaking) peoples living on the eastern border of the lake go back to their origins in the Congo River Basin regions. The Europeans first visited the lake in 1858, when British explorers Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke arrived at Ojiji, on the eastern shore of the lake, in their quest to source the Nile. In 1871 Henry (later Sir Henry) Morton Stanley "found" David Livingston at Ujiji. Important ports along Lake Tanganyika are Bujumbura (Burundi), Kalemie (Congo), Oujiji and Kigoma (Tanzania).