Lake Rukwa

 

  

Lake Rukwa
Location	southwestern Tanzania
Coordinates	8°00′S 32°25′E / 8°S 32.417°E / -8; 32.417Coordinates: 8°00′S 32°25′E / 8°S 32.417°E / -8; 32.417
Lake type	alkaline
Basin countries	Tanzania
Surface elevation	800 m

Lake Rukwa is a lake in the Rukwa Valley of southwestern Tanzania. The alkaline Lake Rukwa lies midway between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Nyasa at an elevation of about 800 metres, in a parallel branch of the rift system. The lake has seen large fluctuations in its size over the years, due to varying inflow of streams. Currently it is about 180 km long and averages about 32 km wide, making it about 5760 square kilometres in size.^[1]. In 1929 it was only about 30 miles (48 km) in length, but in 1939 it was approximately 80 miles (128 km) long and 25 miles wide (40 km)^[2]. Almost half of the lake lies in Uwanda Game Reserve