African Great Lakes

African Great Lakes
Maziwa Makuu (Swahili) Ibiyaga bigari (Kinyarwanda)
Satellite view of the African Great Lakes region and its coastline
African Great Lakes Show map of Zambezi River African Great Lakes Show map of Africa
Coordinates	8°00′00″S 35°00′00″E / 8.00000°S 35.00000°E / -8.00000; 35.00000
Type	Freshwater lakes
Part of	East African Rift
Primary outflows	White Nile river, Congo river, Shire river
Basin countries	Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zambia, Tanzania, and Uganda
Water volume	31,000 cubic kilometres (7,400 cu mi)
Max. temperature	35 °C (95 °F)
Min. temperature	17 to 19 °C (63 to 66 °F)

The African Great Lakes (Swahili: Maziwa Makuu; Kinyarwanda: Ibiyaga bigari) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. The series includes Lake Victoria, the third-largest freshwater lake in the world by area; Lake Tanganyika, the world's second-largest freshwater lake by volume and depth; Lake Malawi, the world's eighth-largest freshwater lake by area; and Lake Turkana, the world's largest permanent desert lake and the world's largest alkaline lake.^[1] Collectively, they contain 31,000 km³ (7,400 cu mi) of water, which is more than either Lake Baikal or the North American Great Lakes. This total constitutes about 25% of the planet's unfrozen surface fresh water. The large rift lakes of Africa are the ancient home of great biodiversity, and 10% of the world's fish species live in this region.

Riparian countries in the African Great Lakes region include Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zambia, Tanzania, and Uganda.^[2]