On which continent is Lake Victoria?

Lake Victoria is on the continent of Africa.

It is one of the African Great Lakes and occupies a broad, shallow depression in East Africa. The lake is shared by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, with the largest portion in Tanzania. Its northern outflow near Jinja, Uganda, feeds the Victoria Nile, which is part of the Nile system.

With a surface area of about 59,947 square kilometres, Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest lake by area and the world’s largest tropical lake. It is also the second-largest freshwater lake by surface area, after North America’s Lake Superior. Despite its great area, it is relatively shallow compared with lakes such as Tanganyika and Baikal.

The lake was named Victoria by the British explorer John Hanning Speke in 1858 after Queen Victoria. A common mix-up is confusing the lake’s location with the Great Rift Valley: Victoria lies between the eastern and western branches of the rift system rather than inside the main rift valley itself.