|
Lake Victoria is also known by the name Victoria Nyanza. Lake Victoria is regarded as one of the Great Lakes of Africa. This lake with 68,800 square kilometers is Africa's largest lake, largest tropical lake in the world, and second largest fresh water lake in the world. The average depth of the lake is 40 meters and the maximum depth is 84 meters. In volume, this lake is the seventh largest fresh water lake. The total volume of water in this lake is 2750 cubic kilometers.
The Lake Victoria is located in the western part of Africa's Great Rift Valley. The shoreline of this lake extends up to 3440 kilometers and consists of more than 3000 islands. Many of these islands are inhabited. The islands, which are becoming popular tourist destination in the present day, are the Ssese Island in Uganda, some islands in the north western part. The Lake Victoria is also one of the major sources for water supply in the Nile. The Arabs came to the island of this lake in search of gold, ivory, other precious metals and slaves.
The Lake Victoria plays an important role in maintaining the ecological balance. It sustains huge number of human population. Nile Perch was started in 1954 to increase the yield of fish in the lake. Lake Victoria ferries have become popular from the 1900's for smooth transportation to Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. Some important ports on this lake are Kisumu, Mwanza, Bukoba, Entebbe, Port Bell and Jinja.
|
