Murchison Falls

Murchison Falls
Location Uganda
Watercourse White Nile

Murchison Falls, also known as Kabalega Falls, is a waterfall between Lake Kyoga and Lake Albert on the White Nile River in Uganda. At the top of Murchison Falls, the Nile forces its way through a gap in the rocks, only 7 metres (23 ft) wide, and tumbles 43 metres (141 ft), before flowing westward into Lake Albert. The outlet of Lake Victoria sends around 300 cubic meters per second (11,000 ft³/s) of water over the falls, squeezed into a gorge less than ten metres (30 ft) wide.

Sir Samuel and Florence Baker were the first Europeans to find them.[1] Baker named them after Sir Roderick Murchison, president of the Royal Geographical Society.[2] The falls lend their name to the surrounding Murchison Falls National Park.

During the regime of Idi Amin in the 1970s the name was changed to Kabarega Falls, after the Omukama (King) Kabarega of Bunyoro, although this was never legally promulgated. The name reverted to Murchison Falls following the downfall of Idi Amin.[3] It is still sometimes referred to as Kabarega Falls.[2]

Ernest Hemingway crashed a plane just downriver from Murchison Falls in 1954.[4]

See also

References

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  1. ↑ Dorothy Middleton, ‘Baker , Florence Barbara Maria, Lady Baker (1841–1916)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 11 Sept 2015
  2. 1 2 Encyclopædia Britannica online Archived June 18, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ United Nations Environment Programme
  4. ↑ "Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda Safaris, Murchison Falls Safari and Tours in Uganda". Murchison Falls National Park Uganda. Retrieved 13 December 2014.

Coordinates: 2°16′41.52″N 31°41′7.08″E / 2.2782000°N 31.6853000°E / 2.2782000; 31.6853000

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