African Great Lakes
Also known as Great Lakes region, Interlacustrine region
series of lakes in the Rift Valley
AI overview
The African Great Lakes are a series of lakes located in the Rift Valley, a major geological feature that runs through Africa. These lakes are important to the millions of people living in the region, who depend on them for water, food, and transportation.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
The African Great Lakes system, in blue Map of larger region including the East African Rift and the entire so-called Great Rift Valley The African Great Lakes (Swahili: Maziwa Makuu; Kinyarwanda: Ibiyaga bigari) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. The series includes Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater lake in the world by area; Lake Tanganyika, the world's second-largest freshwater lake by volume and depth; Lake Malawi, the world's fourth-largest freshwater lake by volume; and Lake Turkana, the world's largest permanent desert lake and the world's largest alkaline lake. Collectively, they contain 31,000 km (7,400 mi) of water, which is more than either Lake Baikal or the North American Great Lakes. This total constitutes about 25% of the planet's unfrozen surface fresh water. The large rift lakes of Africa are the ancient home of great biodiversity, and 10% of the world's fish species live in this region.
Countries in the area which are bounded by the lakes of the Great Lakes region include Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.