Rift Valley lakes

Rift Valley lakes
Greater and lesser flamingos flock to Lake Nakuru in Kenya
Rift Valley lakes
Location	East Africa
Coordinates	3°00′N 36°20′E / 3.000°N 36.333°E / 3.000; 36.333
Type	Series of lakes

The Rift Valley lakes are a series of lakes in the East African Rift valley that runs through eastern Africa from Ethiopia in the north to Malawi in the south, and includes the African Great Lakes in the south. These include some of the world's oldest lakes, deepest lakes, largest lakes by area, and largest lakes by volume. Many are freshwater ecoregions of great biodiversity, while others are alkaline "soda lakes" supporting highly specialised organisms.

The Rift Valley lakes are well known for the evolution of at least 800 cichlid fish species that live in their waters. More species are expected to be discovered.^[1]

The World Wide Fund for Nature has designated these lakes as one of its Global 200 priority ecoregions for conservation.^{[citation needed]}