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Lake Manyara

is a lake located in Monduli District of Arusha Region, Tanzania and is the seventh-largest lake of Tanzania by surface area, at 470-square- kilometre (180 sq mi). It is a shallow, alkaline lake in the Natron-Manyara-Balangida branch of the East African Rift. The northwest quadrant of the lake (about 200 sq. km.) is included within Lake Manyara National Park and it is part of the Lake Manyara Biosphere Reserve, established in 1981 by UNESCO as part of its Man and the Biosphere Programme.

There are differing explanations for how Lake Manyara got its name. The name Manyara may come from the Maasai word "emanyara", which is the spiky, protective enclosure around a family homestead (boma). Possibly the 600 m high rift escarpment hems in the lake, like the enclosure around a Maasai boma. Another theory is that the Mbugwe tribe, who live in the Lake Manyara area, may have given the lake its name based on the Mbugwe word manyero, meaning a trough or place where animals drink water.

Hydrology and basin,

There are differing explanations for how Lake Manyara got its name. The name Manyara may come from the Maasai word "emanyara", which is the spiky, protective enclosure around a family homestead (boma). Possibly theLake Manyara has a catchment area of about 18,372 km2 with elevations between 938 m and 3633 m above sea level. The lake is in a closed basin with no outflow, wherein water is only lost by evaporation. It is fed by underground springs, but the vast majority of the inflow comes from rainwater fed permanent and ephemeral rivers that drain the surrounding catchment. The lake's depth and the area it covers fluctuates significantly. At its maximum, during the wet season, the lake is 40 km wide by 15 km with a maximum depth of 3.7 m.