<P> With a surface area of approximately 68,800 square kilometres (26,600 sq mi), Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second largest fresh water lake by surface area after Lake Superior in North America . In terms of volume, Lake Victoria is the world's ninth largest continental lake, containing about 2,750 cubic kilometres (2.23 × 10 acre ⋅ ft) of water . </P> <P> Lake Victoria receives its water primarily from direct rainfall and thousands of small streams . The Kagera River is the largest river flowing into this lake, with its mouth on the lake's western shore . Lake Victoria is drained solely by the Nile River near Jinja, Uganda, on the lake's northern shore . </P> <P> Lake Victoria occupies a shallow depression in Africa . The lake has a maximum depth of 84 metres (276 ft) and an average depth of 40 metres (130 ft). Its catchment area covers 184,000 square kilometres (71,000 sq mi). The lake has a shoreline of 7,142 kilometres (4,438 mi) when digitized at the 1: 25,000 level, with islands constituting 3.7 percent of this length, and is divided among three countries: Kenya (6 percent or 4,100 square kilometres or 1,600 square miles), Uganda (45 percent or 31,000 square kilometres or 12,000 square miles), and Tanzania (49 percent or 33,700 square kilometres or 13,000 square miles). </P> <P> Geologically, Lake Victoria is relatively young at about 400,000 years old . It formed when westward - flowing rivers were dammed by an upthrown crustal block . During its geological history, Lake Victoria went through changes ranging from its present shallow depression, through to what may have been a series of much smaller lakes . Geological cores taken from its bottom show Lake Victoria has dried up completely at least three times since it formed . These drying cycles are probably related to past ice ages, which were times when precipitation declined globally . Lake Victoria last dried out about 17,300 years ago, and it refilled 14,700 years ago . </P>

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