Lake Ngami is an
endorheic lake in
Botswana north of the
Kalahari Desert. It is seasonally filled by the Taughe River, an effluent of the
Okavango River system flowing out of the western side of the
Okavango Delta. It is one of the fragmented remnants of the ancient
Lake Makgadikgadi. Although the lake has shrunk dramatically beginning from 1890, it remains an important habitat for birds and wildlife, especially in flood year
Lake Ngami had many famous visitors during the 19th (and into the 20th) century. In 1849
David Livingstone described it as a "shimmering lake, some long and 20
0 kmwide". Livingstone also made a few cultural notes about the people living in this area; he noticed they had a story similar to that of the
Tower of Babel, except that the builders' heads were "cracked by the fall of the
scaffolding" (''Missionary Travels'', chap. 26).
One of the illustrations is known to have been made on the basis of a sketch by Mr. Alfred Ryder (1825-1850) son of Artist, William Mills Rider (1795 - 1841), a young Englishman who had visited the Lake Ngami just a few months before Livingstone arrived there. He had died on his way back. Ryder had made a sketch of the lake and although it was left unfinished, Livingstone persuaded Mrs. Ryder to lend it for the illustration of his book.8 Besides carefully copying the lake scenery, the artist employed by Murray was asked to add a family group into the picture to make it more suitable for Livingstone's purposes.
[Tait's Edinburgh magazine - Volume 24 - Page 727: "The missionary travelled 60 miles to administer relief, but he arrived after Mr Alfred Rider a young artist to at penetrated Africa to Sketch its scenery had perished. The volume contains a sketch of Ngami engraved from his drawing, which was unfinished at his death.]
Charles John Andersson
Karl John (Karl Johan) Andersson (4 March 1827 in Norra Råda Värmland, Sweden – 9 July 1867 in Angola) was a Sweden, Swedish explorer, hunter and trader as well as an amateur naturalist and Ornithology, ornithologist.
He is most famous for t ...
(who published ''Lake Ngami; or, Explorations and Discoveries during Four Years' Wanderings in the Wilds of Southwestern Africa'' in 1856) and
Frederick Thomas Green
Frederick Thomas (Fred) Green (April 4, 1829 – May 5, 1876) was an explorer, hunter and trader in what is now Namibia and Botswana. From 1850 to 1853 he operated in the Lake Ngami area with his older brother Charles. After 1854 he was mainly ba ...
also visited the area in the early 1850s.
Frederick Lugard
Frederick John Dealtry Lugard, 1st Baron Lugard (22 January 1858 – 11 April 1945), known as Sir Frederick Lugard between 1901 and 1928, was a British soldier, mercenary, explorer of Africa and colonial administrator. He was Governor of Hong ...
led a British expedition to the lake in 1896.
passed through the area on his journey from
Serowe
Serowe (population approximately 60,000) is an urban village in Botswana's Central District. A trade and commercial centre, it is Botswana's third largest village. Serowe has played an important role in Botswana's history, as capital for the Bama ...
to
Victoria Falls in 1906.
Ngami Lacuna Ngami Lacuna is a feature on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, believed to be a currently dry bed of an intermittent hydrocarbon lake.
When full, the lake would be composed of liquid methane and ethane. It was detected in 2007 by the ''Cassini–Huyg ...
, a
methane lake on
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
's moon
Titan
Titan most often refers to:
* Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn
* Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology
Titan or Titans may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Fictional entities
Fictional locations
* Titan in fiction, fictiona ...
, is named after this lake.
References
External links
* Read local weekly news fro
The Ngami Times
*
{{Authority control
Ngami
Lake Ngami is an endorheic lake in Botswana north of the Kalahari Desert. It is seasonally filled by the Taughe River, an effluent of the Okavango River system flowing out of the western side of the Okavango Delta. It is one of the fragmented remn ...