Lake Langano ( Oromo: ''Hora Langaanoo'',

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

: ላንጋኖ ሐይቅ) is a lake in the

Oromia Region Oromia (, ) is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. Under Article 49 of 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia, Ethiopian Constitution, the capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa, also called Finfinne. The ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

, exactly 200 kilometers by road south of the capital,

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

, on the border between the East Shewa Zone and

Arsi Zone Arsi () is a Zones of Ethiopia, zone in Oromia Region of Ethiopia, named after a clan of the Oromo people, Oromo, who inhabit in the area. Arsi is bordered on the south by Bale Zone, on the southwest by the West Arsi Zone, on the northwest by Ea ...

s. It is located to the east of Lake Abijatta in the

Main Ethiopian Rift Main may refer to: Geography *Main River (disambiguation), multiple rivers with the same name *Ma'in, an ancient kingdom in modern-day Yemen * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *Spanish Main, the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territ ...

at an elevation of 1,585 meters.

Overview

According to figures published by the

Central Statistical Agency The Central Statistical Agency, also known as the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS; Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ስታቲስቲክስ አገልግሎት), is an Ethiopian government agency designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that ...

, Lake Langano is 18 kilometers long and 16 km wide, with a surface area of 230 square kilometers and a maximum depth of 46 meters. The lake's catchment area is 1,600 square kilometers in size, and is drained by the Hora Kallo river which empties into the adjacent Lake Abijatta. As it is free of

Bilharzia Schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever, bilharzia, and Katayama fever is a neglected tropical disease caused by parasitic flatworms called schistosomes. It affects both humans and animals. It affects the urinary tract or the intestines ...

(schistosomiasis), unlike all other freshwater lakes in Ethiopia, Lake Langano is popular with tourists and city-dwellers. The lake is brown in colour and at first sight one may think that the lake is not clean. However this is not the case, the reason for the colour is due to the richness of minerals including high sulphur levels which have led many to believe that the lake water has healing properties. There are a number of resorts around the lake and water sports are popular. There is a variety of wildlife around the lake, which include

hippos A hippo or hippopotamus is either of two species of large African mammal which live mainly in and near water: * Hippopotamus * Pygmy hippopotamus Hippo or Hippos may also refer to: Toponymy * The ancient city of Hippo Regius (modern Annaba, Alg ...

(rare),

monkeys Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

baboon Baboons are primates comprising the biology, genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys, in the family Cercopithecidae. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow ba ...

s, warthogs, and a huge variety of birds. The area around the lake is largely deforested, however, and a large number of herders live around the area. Two earthquakes had their

epicenter The epicenter (), epicentre, or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Determination The primary purpose of a ...

near this lake, the first in 1906 (a magnitude 6.8 on the Richter scale), and the second in 1985 (magnitude 6.2)."Earthquake Risks in Addis Ababa and other Major Ethiopian Cities – Will the Country be Caught Off-guarded?"
by Dr. Samuel Kinde, published March 2002 (accessed 4 June 2008) After the earthquake of 1906 there formed a 25–30 m tall geyser on Edo Laki Island on the northern part of the lake. The geyser disappeared circa 1966 – 1970, leaving a hot spring.

Climate

Notes

External links

Late Evening on Lake Langano Nature Soundscape
{{DEFAULTSORT:Langano Lakes of Ethiopia Lakes of the Great Rift Valley Oromia

Overview

Climate

See also

Notes

External links