Great Rift Valley
Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley is a depression extending from the Jordan and Dead Sea valleys of Palestine, the length of the Red Sea, then in a SW direction in Africa through French Somaliland and Ethiopia to Lake Rudolf in Kenya, from which a branch tends W and then S through Lake Albert, Lake Edward, Lake Kivi, and Lake Tanganyika. The main rift from Lake Rudolf extends southward through Lake Manyara to the southern end of Lake Nyasa. Thus the rift valleys have in their narrow troughs at the great lakes of Africa. The rift valleys are formed by parallel fissures in the earth's crust and (in central Africa) have precipitous walls rising from 4,000 to 5,000 feet to the level of the intervening plateau.
