Lake Manyara is a shallow alkaline lake at the foot of the western wall of the Gregory Rift, about 126 km south-west of Arusha on the road to Ngorongoro. It is a closed basin with no outflow, so its extent swings widely between seasons: it can stretch 40 km long and 15 km wide yet reaches a maximum depth of only about 3.7 m at the end of the rains, and its pH sits near 9.5. The soda water supports dense blooms of algae and, in the right conditions, very large flocks of lesser flamingos, together with pelicans, storks and other waterbirds; historic counts have exceeded two million birds. The lake was included in a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1981, and roughly 200 km² of its surface lies inside Lake Manyara National Park along the western shore. Visitors see the lake from the park's forest and shoreline tracks, from the viewpoint on the escarpment road above Mto wa Mbu, and from canoes when water levels allow.
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