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Be Smart About South Africa

Exploring Africa’s Deepest Lakes

Africa is home to some of the largest, deepest, and all-round awe-inspiring lakes in the world. Most of the major lakes on the continent are part of what is known as Africa’s “Great Lakes”. These are a series of lakes that lie along the East African Rift Valley and connect with both the Nile and Congo rivers. Lake Tanganyika is not only the longest lake in the world (673 kilometres), but it’s also the second-deepest (1,470 metres) after Russia’s Lake Baikal. Located between Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania, Lake Malawi is the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system and is the third-largest in Africa. A part of the Malawian section of the lake was turned into a national park, while the Mozambican portion was declared a reserve in 2011. Lake Kivu lies in Central Africa on the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, covering a surface area of over 2700 square kilometres. This fresh lake is believed to be one to five million years old, and has a depth of 485 metres.

SOURCE: AFRICA.COM

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