Lake Turkana
Lake Turkana, fourth largest of the eastern African lakes. It lies mainly in northern Kenya, with its northern end stretching into Ethiopia. The lake lies in the eastern arm of eastern Africa’s Rift Valley, which is part of the East African Rift System. It covers an area of 2,473 square miles (6,405 square km) and lies at 1,230 feet (375 meters) above sea level. Together with Lake Baringo, which is to its south, Lake Turkana once formed a larger body of water drained by the Sobat River into the Nile River. Earth movements during the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago), however, created a smaller lake of independent inland drainage. Volcanic outcrops give rise to rocky shores in the east and south, while the lake’s western and northern shores are lower and consist of sand dunes, sandspits, and mudflats. The three main islands in the lake—North, Central, and South—are volcanic.
Lake Turkana is 154 miles (248 km) long, only 10–20 miles (16–32 km) wide, and relatively shallow, its greatest recorded depth being 240 feet (73 meters). The lake’s level and area tend to fluctuate. Its only perennial tributary is the Omo River, which flows from Ethiopia. Having no outlet, the lake’s waters are brackish. Sudden storms are frequent, rendering navigation on the lake treacherous.
The peoples of the neighboring desert scrub are largely nomadic pastoralists. They include the Turkana, for whom the lake was named during the 1970s by the Kenyan government of Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of independent Kenya. It had previously been known as Lake Rudolf, after Count Samuel Teleki and Lieutenant Ludwig von Höhnel visited the lake in 1888 and gave it the crown prince of Austria’s name. It has also been called the Jade Sea, due to the color of its water.
Lake Turkana is a rich reservoir of fish. Nile perch, tigerfish, bichir, and various species of tilapia abound. Crocodiles and hippopotamuses are common, and birds include flamingos, cormorants, and kingfishers.
The shores of Lake Turkana have yielded an extraordinary collection of hominin remains, artifacts, and other evidence of prehistoric human life. Excavated by the Leakey family and others, the remains at Koobi Fora—one of several important archaeological sites around the lake—include fossils representing more than 200 individuals.