The Kirk Range is a plateau in southwestern
Malawi, extending in a north-south direction and skirting the southwestern shore of
Lake Malawi and the western border of the
Shire River valley. The range includes several peaks higher than 1800 meters in elevation. The northern end of the range overlooks the
Central Region plateau and Lake Malawi. The range forms the Malawi-
Mozambique border, and the divide between the watersheds of Mozambique's
Revúboé River
The Revúboé River is a river in Mozambique. The river is a large perennial tributary of the Zambezi river.
Description
Originating in the highlands along Mozambique's northern border with Malawi, the Revúboé flows south for several hundred ...
to the west and Malawi's
Shire River to the east. The Lisungwe and Mkulumadzi (Wamkulumadzi) rivers are tributaries of the Shire that originate in the Kirk Range.
The lower slopes are part of the
Southern miombo woodlands ecoregion. Higher elevations include pockets of high-altitude forests, grasslands, and shrublands that make up the
Southern Rift montane forest-grassland mosaic ecoregion.
The Dedza-Salima, Mua Livulezi, Chirobwe (Chilobwe), Mvai, Dzonze (Dzonzi), and Tsamba forest reserves cover parts of the range.
It is named after
Sir John Kirk
Sir John Kirk, (19 December 1832 – 15 January 1922) was a physician, naturalist, companion to explorer David Livingstone, and British administrator in Zanzibar, where he was instrumental in ending the slave trade in that country, with the a ...
.
[Kalinga, Owen J.M.(2012). ''Historical Dictionary of Malawi''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2012. p. 235.]
References
Plateaus of Malawi
Southern Rift montane forest–grassland mosaic
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