Lake Turkana

This vast lake in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, supports all life in the surrounding Kenyan and Ethiopian deserts, including a very dangerous bunch—scorpions, Nile crocodiles and carpet vipers—among them. Plankton and fish thrive here as well, and become part of the thriving circle of life. Its northern edges are home to dunes and flats, while the southern shores are covered in volcanic rocks. During summer, the lake’s temperature changes at a slower rate than the desert around it—creating dramatic winds whipping across the region. Turkana is also known for the discoveries of ancient human remains—a two-million-year-old skull was unearthed in 1972, and more recently a three-and-a-half-million-year-old skull—quite rightly earning it the title of The Cradle of Mankind. For fact fans, Lake Turkana is also the world’s largest desert encircled lake and the most alkaline.