Lake Tanganyika is the African lake that is the world’s second-deepest and borders Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia.
Lake Tanganyika lies in the East African Rift and reaches a maximum depth of about 1,470 meters. Only Russia’s Lake Baikal is deeper. The lake is also among the world’s oldest and longest freshwater lakes, stretching roughly 673 kilometers from north to south.
Its shoreline is divided among four countries: Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Zambia. The lake’s deep, stable waters support an extraordinary variety of fish, including many endemic cichlid species. These fish have evolved in isolation and are important to scientific studies of adaptation and speciation.
Lake Tanganyika is a meromictic lake, meaning its deep waters do not mix completely with the upper layers. This limits oxygen circulation at depth. Fishing, transport, climate variability, pollution, and sediment runoff all affect the lake, which provides food and livelihoods for millions of people in the surrounding region.