The world’s largest desert lake has no river outlet
Lake Turkana, mostly in northern Kenya with a tip in Ethiopia, is Earth’s largest permanent desert lake and its largest alkaline lake. By volume it ranks fourth among salt lakes after the Caspian Sea, Issyk-Kul, and Lake Van.
The Omo, Turkwel, and Kerio rivers enter, yet evaporation alone removes water from this endorheic basin. Levels fell about ten metres between 1975 and 1993. Gilgel Gibe III Dam on the Omo now threatens the main supply. Water stays 27–31 °C; fluoride and mild salinity make drinking unreliable, so lakeside towns lean on springs. Central Island still vents as an active volcano.
Nile crocodiles throng the flats; rocky shores hide scorpions and carpet vipers. Only about 50 fish species live here, few for a big African lake, but 12 of them, including several cichlids, a barb and a catfish, occur nowhere else. Its turquoise tint, which earned the European nickname Jade Sea, comes from algae rising to the surface on calm days. Lake Turkana National Parks—Sibiloi on the east plus Central and South Island parks—form a UNESCO World Heritage cluster. Hominid fossils from surrounding beds helped rewrite human origins narratives.
Count Sámuel Teleki and Lieutenant Ludwig von Höhnel, a Hungarian and an Austrian, reached it on 6 March 1888 and named it after Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria. Jomo Kenyatta renamed the former Lake Rudolf for the Turkana people in 1975; they call it Anam Ka’alakol, “sea of many fish.” In 1894 J. W. Gregory reported a Samburu name, Basso Narok or Black Lake, contrasting with Basso Naibor, White Lake, for nearby Chew Bahir in Ethiopia.
Violent winds rise where land and water heat at different rates, whipping sudden storms across clay shores more alkaline than seawater. The Chalbi Desert lies to the east, and a two-day drive from Nairobi keeps visitor numbers low.
Source: Lake Turkana
