Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa, covering 68,800 km2. It’s also the second-biggest freshwater lake on Earth and the largest tropical lake worldwide. The only lake larger is Lake Superior in North America. Its shores are deeply indented, except for the west, giving it an irregular quadrilateral shape. Its greatest breadth is 240 km and its greatest length is 337 km from north to south. It has more than 3,220 km of coastline. In the middle of the vast plateau that connects the Eastern and Western Rift Valleys, its waters fill a shallow depression. The lake has a surface elevation of 3,720 feet (1,134 meters) above sea level and a maximum depth of 270 feet (82 meters). The lake contains many reefs and archipelagos located just below the surface of the glistening clear waters.
There are more than 200 fish species in Lake Victoria, with tilapia being the most valuable to the economy. The aspect of the lake’s shores varies: precipices rising to a height of 300 feet (90 meters) encircle the lake’s southwest shore, while papyrus and ambatch swamps signify the Kagera River delta on the western side.
The northern shore of the lake is bare and flat, with a deep indentation. The Kavirondo Gulf, which has an average width of 25 km and stretches 64 km east to Kisumu, Kenya, is reached via a narrow channel. The cities of Entebbe and Kampala in Uganda are located on or close to the northern coast. Speke Gulf lies in the lake’s southeast, and Emin Pasha Gulf lies in its southwest.
The largest island in the lake is Ukerewe, which is located north of Speke Gulf and has wooded hills rising 650 feet above the water. In the northwestern corner of the lake are the 62 islands of the Sese archipelago, many of which are remarkably beautiful.