Lakes >> Turkana

Lake Turkana, “The Jade Sea” is the largest lake in Kenya; it is called so because of the remarkable, almost incandescent, colour of its waters. As the largest and most northern of the Rift Valley lakes, Lake Turkana covers an area of 7,500 sq km. This single body of water is over 250 kilometers long- longer than the entire Kenyan coast.The blue watered Lake in shape of a broken dogleg that lay like a bright scar in the blackened landscape. Its water is home of springs and geothermal geysers, its islands breeding colonies for thousands of birds and its waters filled with fish, hippos and crocodiles- plenty of them. The Lake was the world's largest crocodile colony, with some truly massive specimens.

The lake itself is surrounded by barren volcanic lava beds with little to no vegetation. Until 2 million years ago this great body of water was a freshwater lake fed from the north by the Oma River in Ethiopia. Today, Turkana has no outlet and the water is highly alkaline and barely drinkable. Despite the harsh climate, several tribal groups have adjusted the desert heat including the Turkana, Rendille, Gabra, and El Molo.

Many legends still abound about this area, and throughout Kenya the people of this area, especially the Turkana, are regarded as the toughest, most aggressive people on earth. As usual, there is a lot of truth in the legend- and most of the tribes that live around the lake have had to develop a strong survival instinct to prosper on these shores- and the cultures here are some of the most pure and isolated on earth.

Turkana has one of the longest living histories on earth, fossil evidence found in the earth around Turkana suggests that humans have survived these conditions for a very long time- and the Turkana may be the true "Cradle Of Mankind".