Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza (also known as Ukerewe and Nnalubaale) is a lake in Africa. It is bordered and governed by the countries of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. The lake is in the western part of Africa's Great Rift Valley.

Description

Lake Victoria is 68,800 square kilometres (26,560 mi²) in size. It is Africa's largest lake, and the second largest fresh water lake in the world. It was named for Queen Victoria. The White Nile flows out of the lake.

The lake's area is divided among three countries: Tanzania occupies 49% (33,700 km² (13,000 sq mi)), Uganda 45% (31,000 km² (12,000 sq mi)), and Kenya 6% (4,100 km² (1,600 sq mi)).

The lake has a maximum depth of approximately 80 metres (260 ft) and an average depth of 40 metres (130 ft). The deepest part is offset to the east of the lake near Kenya.

Ports and port infrastructure

The main ports on the lake are in Kisumu in Kenya; Mwanza, Musoma, Bukoba in Tanzania; Entebbe, Port Bell and Jinja in Uganda. Many smaller Lake Victoria ports are also in use, the number of ports served by ferries in Tanzania alone reaches 30.

On 20 September 2018, at least 228 people died when the overloaded motor ferry Nyerere, carrying "close to 270 passengers", capsized on Lake Victoria between Ukerewe Island and Ukara Island, Tanzania.

The ferry Bukoba sank in the Lake Victoria on 21 May 1996 with a loss of between 800 and 1,000 lives, making it one of Africa's worst maritime disasters.

In popular culture

• Lake Victoria, its shores, and islands are featured in Jules Verne's novel Five Weeks in a Balloon, in which travelers cross the lake from east to northwest in search of the source of the Nile (chapters 18 and 19).
• In the adventure film Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962), Professor Ferguson and his companions fly across Lake Victoria by hot air balloon during an expedition from Zanzibar to West Africa, to the Volta River.
• In Ivan Yefremov's historical novel At the Edge of Oikoumene (The Land of Foam), an expedition of ancient Egyptians reached the land of Punt (present-day Somalia) by ship, and from there the foot troops reached the Zambezi River and Lake Victoria (Part 1, "The Journey of Baurdjed", 1953).
• In Andrei Gusev's story Consummation in Mombasa (2017), the main characters, Andy and Jennifer, go on a honeymoon from Mombasa to Kisumu, on the shores of Lake Victoria, and then relax in a boarding house on the Kenyan island of Takawiri in the middle of Lake Victoria.

Other websites

• Lake Victoria Citizendium

References