The Southern Eastern Rift is a

freshwater ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

. It occupies the southern end of the

Eastern Rift Valley The Gregory Rift is the eastern branch of the East African Rift fracture system. The rift is being caused by the separation of the Somali plate from the Nubian plate, driven by a thermal plume. Although the term is sometimes used in the narrow s ...

, or Gregory Rift, and includes a number of closed or

endorheic basin An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into la ...

s which drain into central lakes with no outlet to the sea. The Southern Eastern Rift extends 700 km, from central Kenya to Central Tanzania. The Eastern Rift Valley is 50 to 100 km wide for most of its length, but widens out at its southern end. The lake basins are, from north to south,

Lake Baringo Lake Baringo is, after Lake Turkana, the most northern of the Kenyan Rift Valley lakes, with a surface area of and an elevation of . The lake is fed by several rivers: the Molo, Perkerra and Ol Arabel. It has no obvious outlet; the waters ...

Lake Bogoria Lake Bogoria (formerly Lake Hannington) is a saline, alkaline lake that lies in a volcanic region in a half-graben basin south of Lake Baringo, Kenya, a little north of the equator. Lake Bogoria, like Lake Nakuru, Lake Elementeita, and Lake Magad ...

Lake Nakuru Lake Nakuru is one of the Rift Valley lakes at an elevation of above sea level. It lies to the south of Nakuru, in the rift valley of Kenya and is protected by Lake Nakuru National Park. The lake's abundance of algae used to attract a vast qu ...

Lake Naivasha Lake Naivasha is a freshwater lake in Kenya, outside the town of Naivasha in Nakuru County, which lies north west of Nairobi. It is part of the Great Rift Valley. The name derives from the local Maasai name ''Nai'posha'', meaning "rough water ...

Lake Elementaita Lake Elmenteita is a soda lake, in the Great Rift Valley, about 120 km northwest of Nairobi, Kenya. Geography Elmenteita is derived from the Maasai word , meaning "dust place", a reference to the dryness and dustiness of the area, ...

, and

Lake Magadi Lake Magadi is the southernmost lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley, lying in a catchment of faulted volcanic rocks, north of Tanzania's Lake Natron. During the dry season, it is 80% covered by soda and is well known for its wading birds, includin ...

in Kenya, and

Lake Natron Lake Natron is a salt or alkaline lake located in north Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region in Tanzania. It is in the Gregory Rift, which is the eastern branch of the East African Rift. The lake is within the Lake Natron Basin, a Ramsar Site ...

Lake Manyara Lake Manyara is a lake located in Monduli District of Arusha Region, Tanzania and is the seventh-largest lake of Tanzania by surface area, at . It is a shallow, alkaline lake in the Natron-Manyara-Balangida branch of the East African Rift. The ...

, Lake Burungi,

Lake Eyasi Lake Eyasi (formerly german: Njarasasee, "Njarasa Lake", and ''Hohenlohesee'', "Hohenlohe Lake") is a lake located in Karatu District of Arusha Region in north Tanzania. Lake Eyasi is the largest body of water in Arusha region. It is a seasonal ...

Lake Kitangiri A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

Lake Balangida Lake Balangida is a shallow alkaline lake in Hanang District of west Manyara Region in the Natron-Manyara-Balangida branch of the East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rif ...

, Lake Singida, and

Lake Sulunga Lake Sulunga, also known as Bahi Swamp, is a shallow seasonal lake on the border of the Dodoma and Singida regions In Tanzania. It is the largest body of water for both regions during the wet season. It is located about 45 km west of the capit ...

in Tanzania."Southern Eastern Rift" "Freshwater Ecoregions of the World". Accessed 19 September 2019

/ref> In the Kenyan portion of the Southern Eastern Rift, Northern Acacia–Commiphora bushlands and thickets occupies the rift valley floor, with

East African montane forests The East African montane forests is a montane tropical moist forest ecoregion of eastern Africa. The ecoregion comprises several separate areas above 2000 meters in the mountains of South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Geography The East Afr ...

along the high eastern and western escarpments. In the Tanzanian portion, Serengeti volcanic grasslands occur east and west of the Ngorongoro Highlands. The plateau itself, along with

Mount Meru Mount Meru ( Sanskrit/ Pali: मेरु), also known as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and sp ...

and

Mount Kilimanjaro Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: above sea level and ab ...

, are covered in

. Further south, Southern Acacia–Commiphora bushlands and thickets occupy the Tarangire River valley, the basin of

, and the lowlands south and west of

Miombo woodlands The Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located primarily in Central Africa. It includes four woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) characterized ...

occupy the southern and eastern watershed of the

Wembere River The Wembere River is a river located in north western Singida Region, Tanzania. The river is part of the water basin of Lake Eyasi. The Wembere River originates in hilly country in central Tanzania at 6.0º south, and flows northwards through ...

and the

Mbulu Highlands The Mbulu Highlands is a plateau in north-central Tanzania. The Mbulu Highlands lie between the basins of Lake Eyasi to the west and Lake Manyara to the east. The highlands extend northeast-southwest. A steep northeast-southwest-running escarpm ...

, which divide the Lake Eyasi basin from the Lake Manyara, Tarangire, and Lake Sulunga lowlands. Enclaves of East African montane forest occur at higher elevations in the Mbulu Highlands and

Mount Hanang Mount Hanang is a mountain in northern Tanzania. The peak has an elevation of 3,420 m above sea level. Hanang is located in Manyara Region's Hanang District. It is (after Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Meru and Mount Loolmalasin) the fourth-highest m ...

. In the Itigi District are

Itigi–Sumbu thicket The Itigi-Sumbu thicket is an ecoregion consisting of two small areas of thick shrubland in Tanzania, Zambia and the adjacent Democratic Republic of the Congo, in East Africa. The floral community of dense deciduous brush is unique, with many en ...

References

Ecoregions of Kenya Ecoregions of Tanzania Endorheic basins of Africa Freshwater ecoregions of Africa Geography of Kenya Geography of Tanzania Great Rift Valley {{ecoregion-stub