Ngami, Lake

Ngami, Lake
Shallow lake, northwestern Botswana, north of the Kalahari Desert.

It was a large lake, estimated at more than 170 mi (275 km) in circumference when the explorer David Livingstone sighted it in 1849. The lake varies in size with the amount of rainfall, and, although it is much smaller today than in Livingstone's time, it is rich in birdlife.

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      shallow lake at the southwest corner of the 4,000-square-mile (10,400-square-kilometre) Okavango Swamp in northwestern Botswana. The swamp and the lake are fed by the Okavango River, which loses most of its flow through evaporation in the marshes. Lake Ngami is 3,057 feet (932 m) above sea level. When the explorer David Livingstone (Livingstone, David) first sighted it in 1849, he estimated it to be more than 170 miles (275 km) in circumference, but by 1950 it had become a sea of grass, and during a severe drought in 1965–66 it dried up completely. Because thousands of cattle belonging to the local inhabitants were dependent on the lake for water, the drought caused much hardship. Abundant rains since then have again filled the lake, although it is much smaller than it was when Livingstone first saw it. It is rich in birdlife and contains barbel fish, which are able to survive in mud for months while the lake is dry. Lake Ngami has no natural outlet; if it became filled, the Kunyere and Nghabe valleys would be submerged, and any excess water would be deflected into the Boteti (Botletle) River.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Ngami,Lake — Nga·mi (əng gäʹmē), Lake A lake of northern Botswana north of the Kalahari Desert. The marshy lake covered an extensive area during the Pleistocene Epoch but was greatly reduced in size during the 1880s, when papyrus growth blocked the mouth of… …   Universalium

  • Ngami, Lake — geographical name marshy depression NW Botswana N of Kalahari Desert; formerly a large lake …   New Collegiate Dictionary

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  • Lake Makgadikgadi — is an ancient lake that existed in what is now the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. It may have once covered as much as 80,000 km² and been 30 m deep. The Okavango, Zambezi, and Cuando rivers once all emptied into the lake.Origin and… …   Wikipedia

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