Lake Makgadikgadi

About

Lake Makgadikgadi (Setswana: Letsha la Makgadikgadi, [lɪt͜sʰa la makʰadiˈkʰaːdi]) was a paleolake that existed in what is now the Kalahari Desert in Botswana from 2,000,000 years BP to 10,000 years BP. It may have once covered an from 80,000 to 275,000 km2 (31, 000 to 106, 000 sq mi) and was 30 metres (98 ft) deep. The Okavango, Upper Zambezi, and Cuando rivers once all emptied into the lake. Its remains are seen in the Makgadikgadi salt pans, one of the largest salt pans in the world. Mitochondrial DNA research suggests (though this remains a matter of controversy) that the lake region is the homeland of Homo sapiens, where humans first evolved as a distinct species about 200,000 years ago, before expanding to other parts of Africa about 70,000 years later.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.