Lake Tanganyika

Lake Tanganyika, Africa's second largest after Lake Victoria, is situated in west Tanzania along the border with Congo, Burundi and Zambia.

The lake covers an area about 32,900 square km (12,700 square miles). The longest freshwater lake in the world (660 km / 410 miles) occupies the southern end of the Western Rift Valley. Lake Tanganyika is also the second deepest lake on the world (1,436 m / 4,710 feet) after the Siberian Lake Baikal. The oldest of the African Rift lakes was formed around twenty million years ago with tectonic movements of the East African Rift Valley.

Lake Tanganyika is fed by different rivers, Malagarasi and Kalamob on the Tanzanian side and by the Ruzizi river. The lake has diverse flora and fauna. The lake itself is inhabited by endemic fish species, different crab, molluscs and crustaceans species, crocodiles and hippos. The forested hills on the lakes western shore are the homeland for numerous chimpanzee colonies. The most famous chimpanzee conservation areas are the Gombe stream and the Mahale Mountains National Park.

The main settlement is the port town Kigoma with the old Arab slave trading place Ujiji. It was here where Henry Morton Stanley uttered the sentence “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”. The lake offers an attraction you will most likely not want to miss, the My Liemba, a steam ship for passengers and cargo which was constructed in Germany in 1913. A journey on the ferry will give you beautiful sunset moments which you'll remember for your lifetime.