Lake Burigi is an endorheic lake in the Karagwe

Karagwe

Karagwe is one of the 6 districts of the Kagera Region of Tanzania. It is bordered to the North by Uganda, to the East by the Bukoba Rural District, to the Southeast by the Muleba District, to the South by the Ngara District and to the West by Rwanda, which is divided by the River Kagera.According...

 district, Kagera Region

Kagera Region

Kagera Region is located in the northwestern corner of Tanzania. Bukoba, Kagera Region's capital, is a fast growing town situated on the shore of Lake Victoria. Bukoba lies only 1 degree south of the Equator and is Tanzania's second largest port on the lake. The region neighbors Uganda, Rwanda and...

 of Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

. Parts of the lake and its shore are situated within the Burigi Game Reserve

Burigi Game Reserve

The Burigi Game Reserve is found in Tanzania by Lake Burigi. It was established in 1980. This African game reserve is 2200km²....

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History

Visited by Dr. Hans Meyer's

Hans Meyer (geologist)

Hans Heinrich Josef Meyer was a German geographer from Hildburghausen, who was the son of publisher Herrmann Julius Meyer . Hans Meyer is credited with being the first European to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro 5,895 m...

 East African expedition, its name on maps of the time was Urigi. The lake's discovery is attributed to Capt. John Hanning Speke

John Hanning Speke

John Hanning Speke was an officer in the British Indian Army who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa and who is most associated with the search for the source of the Nile.-Life:...

, who name it Lueor-lo-Urigi ("White Lake of Urigi").

Geography

The lake is 18 kilometres (11.2 mi) long and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) wide. It has an elongated shape, the greatest distance between the two extremities being about 30 kilometres (18.6 mi). It is so narrow that from one side, the other can always clearly be seen. The lake's water is bright azure in color.

Its area measures approximately 7000 hectares (17,297.4 acre). Fed by rivers from surrounding hills, the largest is Ruiza River. The lake is visible from Useni or Kavari. Papyrus

Papyrus

Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....

 swamps and groundwater forest areas occur around the lake. The surrounding hills are brown, with dark green bush scatterings.Its receding waters have left great extents of flat plain on the sides and around the bays running far inland into valleys. The lake is sunk about 1200 feet (365.8 m) below the average level of the bare grassy hills around it. There is a narrow basin at the head of the lake. Its shore is broken by numerous inlets.

The Yanghiro district, which is situated on the eastern shore of the Urigi, is a hilly region, scattered over with villages and cultivated fields, as well as with woods of banana-trees.

Flora and fauna

Its shores and waters are favored by birds, such as cranes, herons, pelicans, Parra Africana, egrets and waders, which find excellent feeding over the large spaces near the extremities and shore line of bays. These are covered with close-packed growths of Pistia stratiotes rigl plants. Kobus ellipsiprymnus and Hippopotamus amphibius frequent the area. There are armies of black mosquitoes. Lake fish were infested with guinea worm at the time of Stanley's expedition.