The Ufipa Plateau is a highland in southwestern

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

. It lies mostly in

Rukwa Region Rukwa Region (''Mkoa wa Rukwa'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions with a postcode number 55000. The regional capital is the municipality of Sumbawanga. According to the 2012 national census, the region had a population ...

, near the border with

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

. The plateau is named for the

Fipa people The Fipa (or Wafipa) are a Bantu ethno-linguistic group based in the Sumbawanga Rural and Nkasi districts of Rukwa Region in southwestern Tanzania speaking the Fipa and Mambwe languages. In 1992, the Fipa population was estimated to number 20 ...

who inhabit it.

Geography

The plateau extends northwest-southeast, rising between two segments of the

East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. In the past it was considered to be part of a ...

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. ...

(lake surface 773 m elevation) lies to the southwest in the western branch of the rift, and the graben valley of

Lake Rukwa Lake Rukwa is an endorheic lake located the Rukwa Valley of Rukwa Region, Songwe Region and Katavi Region in southwestern Tanzania. The lake is the third largest inland body of water in the country. Geography The alkaline Lake Rukwa lies midway ...

(lake surface 793 meters elevation) lies to the northeast. The plateau rises in steep escarpments above both lake valleys, and includes extensive areas above 2000 meters elevation. Mbizi (2490 m) is the highest peak, northeast of Sumbwawanga the edge of the escarpment overlooking Lake Rukwa. Malonje (2418 m) lies south of Mbizi. Most of the plateau lies in the

closed drainage An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

basin of Lake Rukwa. The southeastern portion of the plateau is drained by the Momba River and its tributaries, and the northeastern portion is drained by tributaries of the Rungwa River; both rivers empty into Lake Rukwa. The western edge of the plateau drains into Lake Tangankyika. The Kalambo River drains the central plateau, and forms

Kalambo Falls The Kalambo Falls on the Kalambo River is a single-drop waterfall on the border of Zambia and Rukwa Region, Tanzania at the southeast end of Lake Tanganyika. The falls are some of the tallest uninterrupted falls in Africa (after South Africa's ...

as it descends the escarpment towards Lake Tanganyika. The plateau has some wetland areas, including the Kale Swamp. Cities on the plateau include

Sumbawanga Sumbawanga is a city located in western Tanzania. It is the capital of Rukwa Region and the municipal seat of Sumbawanga Urban District with postcode number 55100 . The district had a population of approximately 150,000 based on the 2002 census. S ...

, near the center of the plateau, and Namanyere in the northwest.

Ecology

The natural vegetation on most of the plateau is

miombo woodland The Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located primarily in Central Africa. It includes four woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) characterized b ...

. The Mbizi Forest Reserve (17,373 ha) and the Lyambo Hill Forest Reserve (212.39 km²) protect an enclave of montane rainforest on the slopes of Mount Mbizi, and montane grasslands at the summit. The Mbizi forest supports a population of Ugandan red colobus monkeys ''(Procolobus tephrosceles)''. There are a chain of protected areas along the western escarpment, including Kalambo Falls Forest Reserve (5.63 km²), Kalambo River Forest Reserve (461.63 km²), Loasi River Forest Reserve (354.81 km²), and Lwafi-Nkamba Game Reserve (3388.57 km²)."Lwafi-Nkamba Game Reserve. ''Protected Planet''. Accessed 2 September 2019

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Transport

The plateau is crossed by two major roads. Tanzania's M8 highway extends from

Mpanda Mpanda is a city in Katavi Region of Tanzania, East Africa with a postcode number 50100. It is the administrative centre of Katavi Region, Mpanda District and is itself one of the four districts of the region. Mpanda is a "frontier town" in the ...

to Sumbawanga, and then south to Mbala in Zambia. Sections of the M8 are unpaved. The Tunduma-Sumbawanga Road extends southeast from Sumbawanga to

Tunduma Tunduma is a town in Songwe Region, Tanzania, on the border between Tanzania and Zambia. It has border posts for both the Tanzam Highway and the TAZARA railway (for which it has a station) linking the two countries. It is located 103 km southwest ...

on the Zambian border, where it meets the A104 highway and the

TAZARA Railway The Tazara Railway, also called the Uhuru Railway or the Tanzam Railway, is a railway in East Africa linking the port of Dar es Salaam in east Tanzania with the town of Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia's Central Province. The single-track railway is ...

References

{{coord, 8.11437, S, 31.54685, E, display=title, type:mountain_region:TZ-source:google_maps Central Zambezian miombo woodlands Landforms of Tanzania Southern Highlands, Tanzania Southern Rift montane forest–grassland mosaic Plateaus of Africa