The Rift Valley lakes are a group of lakes in the East African Rift which runs through the whole eastern side of the African continent from north to south. These lakes include some of the oldest, largest and deepest lakes in the world, and many are freshwater ecoregions of great biodiversity, while others are alkaline "soda lakes" supporting highly specialised organisms.
The Rift Valley Lakes are well known for the evolution of at least 800 cichlid fish species that live in their waters. More species will be discovered.
The World Wildlife Fund has designated the African Rift Valley lakes one of its Global 200 priority ecoregions for conservation.
In this article, the major lakes are listed, generally in order from north to south, and more detailed articles on each lake can be accessed through the linked names.
Read more about Rift Valley Lakes: Geology, Ecology, Ethiopian Rift Valley Lakes, Eastern Rift Valley Lakes (Kenya and Tanzania), Western or Albertine Rift Valley Lakes, Southern Rift Valley Lakes, Other Lakes of The Great Rift Valley
Famous quotes containing the words valley and/or lakes:
“All the Valley quivered one extended motion, wind
undulating on mossy hills”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)
“White Pond and Walden are great crystals on the surface of the earth, Lakes of Light.... They are too pure to have a market value; they contain no muck. How much more beautiful than our lives, how much more transparent than our characters are they! We never learned meanness of them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)