Lake Turkana

See more Lakes. See best of Rift Valley in Kenya.

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Experience a brilliant sunset at Lake Turkana, Meet the remarkable El-Molo people, Camp on the mythical slopes of Mt Kenya

10 days, from $734 (Group tour). Intrepid Travel »

This vast lake in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, supports all life that lives in the Kenyan and Ethiopian deserts that surround it, which numbers a very dangerous bunch, scorpions, Nile crocodiles and carpet vipers among them. Plankton and fish thrive here as well, and become part of the thriving circle of life. On its northern edges are dunes and flats while on its southern shores volcanic rocks. In a very hot part of the world, the lake’s temperature changes much slower than the desert around it creating dramatic winds which whip across it.

Turkana is also known for the discoveries of ancient human remains found there, a two million year old skull in 1972 and more recently a three and a half million year old skull, quite rightly earning the lake the title of ‘The Cradle of Mankind’.

For fact fans, Lake Turkana is also the world’s largest desert encircled lake and the most alkaline.

4 / 5 Review by editor Worldreviewer

‘Lake Turkana National Parks’

'The most saline of Africa's large lakes, Turkana is an outstanding laboratory for the study of plant and animal communities. The three National Parks ... Read more »

4 / 5 Review by press.

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