Qualla: Lake Tanganyika

Lake Tanganyika: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The ferry is older than most of the countries on its route. The MV Liemba, German-built and launched before the First World War, historically worked a weekly circuit up and down Lake Tanganyika - leaving Kigoma on Wednesday afternoons and arriving in Mpulungu on Sunday. The Liemba has been out of service since 2018 undergoing a major renovation expected to return it to operation by 2026. Travellers fly across continents just to board it. Some come to the lake mainly for the ship. The lake itself is a thin blue line on the map, 676 kilometers long and oriented almost perfectly north-south, a freshwater rift that is the longest of its kind on Earth and the second deepest and second largest by volume - in both cases behind only Lake Baikal, half a world away in Siberia.

Read more: Lake Tanganyika on Qualla

Image: Public domain

Lake Tanganyika: Four Countries, One Lake

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Abdoulma, CC BY-SA 4.0. Tanganyika's shoreline crosses four national borders. Most of the east coast is in Tanzania. Burundi holds a sliver at the northeast tip where Bujumbura, the country's largest city, meets the water. Most of the west coast is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including Kale...

Read more: Lake Tanganyika on Qualla

Image: Abdoulma | CC BY-SA 4.0

Lake Tanganyika: Riding The Liemba

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Felix Dance, CC BY 2.0. The Liemba is a legend in East and Central African travel - a steamer that has served the lake for over a century under three names, two empires, and many flags. Her schedule is part of the experience: Kigoma on Wednesday afternoon, Mpulungu on Sunday, with dozens of stops in bet...

Read more: Lake Tanganyika on Qualla

Image: Felix Dance | CC BY 2.0

Lake Tanganyika: Towns Along The Shore

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit H. Zell, CC BY-SA 3.0. Bujumbura is the northern anchor, capital of Burundi, close to where the Ruzizi River pours in from Lake Kivu. Kigoma in Tanzania is the northern ferry terminus and the main travellers' base on the east side. Kalemie, on the Congolese shore, has its own small airport and a rail c...

Read more: Lake Tanganyika on Qualla

Image: H. Zell | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lake Tanganyika: A Very Deep, Very Old Place

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dan Koehl, CC BY 3.0. Tanganyika is ancient - one of only twenty lakes on Earth more than a million years old - and it is very, very deep. Its dark, alkaline water drops well past the oxygen line, leaving the lower reaches lifeless and filled with toxic hydrogen sulphide. What lives above that line is...

Read more: Lake Tanganyika on Qualla

Image: Dan Koehl | CC BY 3.0