Lake Albert, also Albert Nyanza and formerly Lake Mobutu Sese Seko, is a lake located in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is one of the African Great Lakes. Lake Albert is Africa’s seventh-largest lake, and the world’s twenty-seventh largest lake by volume.
Lake Albert is located in the center of the continent, on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lake Albert is the northernmost of the chain of lakes in the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift.
It is about 160 km (100 mi) long and 30 km (19 mi) wide, with a maximum depth of 51 m (168 ft), and a surface elevation of 619 m (2,030 ft) above sea level.
In the southwest, the Semliki River brings into the lake the waters of Lake Edward, of the Congo Escarpment, and of the rain-soaked Ruwenzori Range, building a large alluvial plain in the process. There is a considerable expanse of lowland at the northern end, where the Victoria Nile enters as a sluggish stream in a swampy delta.
Almost immediately the lake narrows into the Albert Nile, through which it supplies water to the White Nile. In the west and east, the lake is bordered by forested cliffs and ravines.
Lake Albert lies at an elevation of 2,021 feet (616 m) in the lowest and hottest part of Uganda. The mean annual temperature is 78° F (26° C), and rainfall averages 34–40 inches (864–1,016 mm).
Because of the high rate of evaporation, the waters are somewhat saline, and free phosphate is also present. Game—including elephant, buffalo, hippopotamus, crocodile, and antelope—is abundant, especially in the Semliki Plains and the northern shores near Murchison Falls.
Fishing sustains a scanty population, located in lakeshore villages.
