Lake Langano

Lake Langano
Coordinates	7°36′N 38°43′E / 7.6, 38.717Coordinates: 7°36′N 38°43′E / 7.6, 38.717
Basin countries	Ethiopia
Max. length	18 km
Max. width	16 km
Surface area	230 km²
Max. depth	46 m
Surface elevation	1,585 m

Langano is a lake in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, exactly 200 km south of the capital, Addis Ababa by road, on the border between the Misraq Shewa and Arsi Zones. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at an elevation of 1,585 meters to the east of Lake Abijatta. 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.^[1]

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 pastoral rural people 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