Lake Turkana

Lake Turkana or Lake Rudolf, lake of central Africa, mostly in north-western Kenya, with the northernmost tip in south-western Ethiopia. Located in the Rift Valley 375 m (1,250 ft) above sea level, the shallow, narrow lake is about 250 km (155 mi) long, up to 56 km (35 mi) wide, and covers an area of some 6,400 sq km (2,471 sq mi). It is fed by the Omo River from the north, but has no outlet. Its waters have a high rate of evaporation and are brackish. Lake Turkana supports large numbers of fish; crocodile and hippopotamus also abound. The lake shores were the site of extremely important discoveries of hominid fossils by Kenyan palaeoanthropologist Richard Leakey. One of the most spectacular finds was “Turkana Boy”, a nearly complete skeleton dating from 1.6 million years ago. In May 1999 archaeologists discovered a prehistoric “tool factory”, dating from some 2.3 million years ago, near Lake Turkana. The site contains both the tools and the original materials from which they were made. It is believed the tools could have been used by australopiths or Homo habilis. On the east shore of Lake Turkana are the Sibiloi National Park and the Central Island National Park, both of which have formed a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. In 2001 the site was extended to include the South Island National Park.