Lake Tanganyika

The world's longest and second-deepest freshwater lake/Water

Lake Tanganyika in the East African Rift is the world's longest freshwater lake (673 km) and the second-deepest after Lake Baikal, reaching 1,470 meters. It holds roughly 18% of the world's available surface freshwater. The lake is shared by Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia. Formed roughly 9 to 12 million years ago, it is one of the oldest lakes on Earth, and its great age and isolation have produced remarkable endemic biodiversity: approximately 98% of its cichlid fish species are found nowhere else. Explorer David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley visited the lake in 1871.