Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria, in Kyniarwanda "Nyanza", is one of the great lakes
of Africa.
It was named in honor of Queen Victoria in 1858 by
the English explorer John Speke, in search for the legendary
sources of the Nile.
The present city of Mwanza,
located in the southern part of the lake, is located near the
hill where the explorer had the intuition about the origin of the
Nile and to remember that memorable moment, the gulf took the
name of Speke.
It covers an area of 68,870 km² and is
the largest lake in Africa and the second largest in the world.
It is situated on a plateau in the western part of the Rift
Valley and its waters are part of Tanzania (49%), Uganda (45%)
and Kenya (6%).
The only emissary is the white Nile, the
longest of the tributaries of the Nile.
Its shores are an
alternative to traditional safaris: gentle hills descend to the
crystalline waters where you can watch the shows that only nature
can give us, like that of the white-necked eagles pouncing on the
fishes of its rich waters.
Lake Victoria plays a vital role in the survival of the millions
of people living around its coasts, it is one of the most densely
populated regions on earth.
The ecosystem of the lake and
neighboring lands has undergone negative changes due to human
intervention. During the 1950s, Nile perch was introduced into
the lake in an attempt to increase fishery production.
The
operation proved to be completely devastating for the local
ecosystem, which saw the extinction of many of the fish species
of the lake causing damage to biodiversity that was difficult to
quantify.
Despite this fact, the lake is characterized by a variety of
tropical freshwater fishes, these are in great demand for
aquariums around the world, developing in this way a very
important business for the surrounding areas.
Lake Victoria
offers the possibility of going fishing, boat trips and visiting
the breeding grounds for birds and crocodiles.
In the lake
there are numerous archipelagos, which count about 3,000
different islands often uninhabited, and beautiful cliffs, some
of which are visible below the water surface.
Lake Victoria
contains more than 200 different fish species, but the most
economically important is Tilapia.
On Lake Victoria there are two beautiful National Parks: the Rubondo Island National Park and the Saanane National Park.
