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Lake Langano
Langano is a lake in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, exactly 200 kilometers
by road south of the capital, Addis Ababa, on the border between the Misraq
Shewa and Arsi Zones. The first European to record its existence, Oscar
Neumann, records that it was also known as "Lake Kore". It is
located to the east of Lake Abijatta in the Main Ethiopian Rift at an
elevation of 1,585 meters.
Overview
According to figures published by the Central Statistical Agency, Lake
Langano is 18 kilometers long and 16 km wide, with a surface area of 230
square kilometers and a maximum depth of 46 meters. The lake has a catchment
1600 square kilometers in size, and is drained by the Hora Kallo river
which empties into the adjacent Lake Abijatta.
As it is free of Bilharzia (schistosomiasis), unlike all other freshwater
lakes in Ethiopia, Lake Langano is popular with tourists and city-dwellers.
The lake is brown in color. There are a number of resorts around the lake
and water sports are popular. There is a variety of wildlife around the
lake, which include hippos (rare), monkeys, baboons, warthogs, and a huge
variety of birds. The area around the lake is largely deforested, however,
and a large number of herders live around the area.
Two earthquakes had their epicenter near this lake, the first in 1906
(a magnitude 6.8 on the Richter scale), and the second in 1985 (magnitude
6.2). After the earthquake of 1906 there formed a 25 – 30 m tall geyser
on Edo Laki Island on the northern part of the lake. The geyser disappeared
circa 1966 - 1970, leaving a hot spring.
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