Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent dominated, in the west, by the vast Congo Basin, an area of low-lying tropical forest and wetlands centred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lying to the south of the region is the high plateaux of Angola. East Central Africa is traversed by the Great Rift Valley which runs from the Red Sea to Mozambique in the South. Along the valley there is a string of lakes, including Lake Albert, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Turkana, Lake Natron and the largest lake in Africa, Lake Victoria. East Africa is the site of Mount Kilimanjaro (5895 metres) and Mount Kenya (5199 metres), the two tallest peaks in Africa and a string of volcanoes running through the Rift Valley, illustrate the volatile geological nature of this mountainous region.
The huge diversity of wildlife in Central Africa helps to support the tourist industry of the region. National Parks, Forest Reserves and Game Reserves attract millions of visitors annually. Many areas are designated as protected in order to reduce the threat of extinction for the region’s most endangered species.